hi, i got a palm from the lady next door, and i cant figure out what it is. It has a thin trunk, less than and inch and a quarter at the base, getting thinner as it reaches the top. It has 2 what i suppose could be called sprouts, each about a foot tall, at the base. the leaves are long and thin, about18 inches long and half an inch wide. the tree is currently abut 6-6.6 feet tall, but shows no sign of stopping growing. the main reason i want to know is because i left it out on a noght it got a little chilly( somwhere between 40 and 55 degrees farenheit) and it dropped all the leaves but 5 below the area i can see as newer growth. The new growth has a creamy color to it. The sproutty things have dropped most of their leaves also The leaves that do reamin are wilty, kind of transparent, and brown. Very limp. they arent growing(well duh) and i cannot see green leaves sprouting in the crown. i figured new leaves would grow in, but i want to make sure first. Something that might help with I.D my grandmother has a palm just like this one, and it waas cut off about 3 feet from the base, i think maybe to induce sprouting.
update, kinda its the same person. I made a mistake in the above post. there are 5 green leaves on the tree(main) and the other smaller, dead leaves have been removed. There appear to be new leaves growing in. The sprouts also have good leaves, many more than the main trunk(which is clean,meaning it dropps the entire leaf, and does not keep the base.) upon close inspection of the base, i noticed that this current tree appears to be a sprout also, there is a trunk that is cut off just at soil line. The tree has stoped dropping leaves, it is holding all the current leaves. Teh sprouts are growing, and i can see some newer leaves coming into the main crown. I would still like to know what kind of plam this is though.
another update. ok, the top of the tree started to rot out, so i lopped it off about 3 fet above teh soil. the two sprouts are doing great. They are growing, and the older trunk appears to be reacting faily well to being cut off.any help on ID would be greatly appeciated.
Cordyline Your palm sounds like it might be a cordyline australis, which actually isn't a palm. but still a beautiful plant. This winter was hard on them, and I have one that was given to me that is doing the same thing.
Thank You thank you for id'ing my tree. i found a pic that almost perfectly replicates my tree. im a little worried about a 20 foot tree, but perhaps by the time it reaches more than 8 feet (again) i will have moved out of parents house(im currently 16, so dont think im a mooch) if not, the cutting back didnt seem to harm it much. once again, thankyou.
