Thanks once again to Ian Crown of Panoramic Fruit, a western Puerto Rican fruit farm, for sharing a few of his images (and stories) with Botany Photo of the Day. Ian writes of Adonidia merrillii:
"It [Adonidia merrillii] is very common, admittedly but what drew me to shoot several photos from flower to developing seed to ripe seed to the whole plant was the killer bees swarming the flowers by the hundreds [second photograph]. They love it and you can hear the hum of whizzing feeding bustling bees from 20 feet away. I was able to stand about 2 feet away (but not much closer or some bees come toward you to warn you to step no closer) and the frenzy of nectar and pollen collection up this close is quite a kick...Since the hives are not near these plants, the bees are not aggressive. The flowering trees I have in front of my hives require you to be much more respectful. Much more. You can not even drive up in a jeep, the engine noise or vibrations agitate them. But our worst attack ever was from an avocado tree by the house that had a swarm enter and occupy overnight. This went poorly for man and dog when the crew showed up for work the next morning."
Interested in the "killer bees"? Read more about the Africanized honey bee via the University of Florida's Featured Creatures.
Native only to the Philippines, Adonidia merrillii is sometimes known as Manila palm. However, it is cultivated in tropical areas (and, apparently, shopping malls) around the world. It is also referred to as Christmas palm, alluding to the red fruit clusters prominent in December.
Growing information is available via palm-trees.org and additional photographs can be found on Arkive: Adonidia merrillii.
Nice pics..Adonidia merrilii was just about wiped out in So Fla due to the "lethal yellow" disease and was a great landscape palm. Seems to have been replaced with solitare palm(archontophoenix alexandrae) now because of less susceptibility.
I remain bemused at the whole panic around "killer" bees. Here in South Africa, those bees are what beekeepers farm with. It is true that they are a tad aggressive, and you definitely do not want to mes around with them, but judged by the whole panic one would swear they were out to get us, and that every bee's life ambition is to die in a glorious kamikaze attack on some innocent kid.
Anyway, nice photos, and thanks for sharing! Around here, we do get one nice thing from the invasive eucalyptus trees growing all over the place: the bees extensively use the nectar, and when they are flowering, entire trees are often humming with all the bees; you can hear it quite some distance away.
Adonidia merrillii is a marvelous palm. It is the only member of its subtribe to cross Wallace's Line. It is native to Palawan, but recently, a natural population has been found in Sabah, on Borneo (this from a forthcoming article in PALMS).
While it's true that it is susceptible to Lethal Yellowing, it certainly has not been wiped out here in Florida. It is very, very common, in part, because it grows so fast. Even if a palm dies, a new one can grow in its place in a few short years. The "Alexander Palm" or "Solitaire Palm," which is also very commonly used in the landscaping, is Ptychosperma elegans, a close relative of Adonidia.
Lovely lovely palm. It was ubiquitous in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on Borneo. A few shots (of which Scott helped me ID, since I'm not a palm guy!):
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Adonidia&w=39312862%40N00
i live in florida not a native but 49 in the stte years almost makes me one
i live on the gulf coast it was so differnt back then the flowering
trees lined the river front the waters were clear and blue the big
trailer parks were but a thought flower farms and sandy roads
down town and you could see most all the gulf along long boat key
it would seem from my googleing mr zona is the learned gardner and has
pages and pages on the net and is known as the indiana jones of the
palm world -live here 49 years and eveyone else knows that but me
thank you all always interesting around here bon jour