Arenga hookeriana on the move

My Arenga hookeriana has been moving upwards. It has been growing, but it's also lifting itself out of the ground. Looks as though the roots aren't penetrating the ground. Instead they're pushing the whole plant up. But it's not loose or anything.

The soil's sandy although not course and loose. It's not as though plant roots couldn't penetrate, the other plants aren't doing this.

So, is this normal for this palm, or is it getting ready to pack its bags and leave?

The photo doesn't show it so well but you can see the plant seems to be on a bit of a hump and looks quite healthy.

I got your comment in another thread about exposed roots.
I have never experienced this in the ground. However, I have had
this happen in the many pots I maintain...and it is usually
curtains: when the roots rise the crown detaches...reason
they rise (???)...maybe planted too much in its original
potted rootball without spreading it well, or some crossed
crucial/taproots (?) I saved some by mounding about them.

Of course, your palm doesn't seem to be a "monocot-crown-type"
in the pic...looks a bit like a maple tree to me.

You could be right, it was just put into the ground without spreading the roots, never thought of that. It's our wet season now so perhaps a good time to take it out and try to re-arrange the root system. It's been there over a year now, they don't get bigger than about that size.

I also have "bad spots". This is really annoying when
planting landscaped rows. Some spots simply kill my
palms. I even excavated/planted a new 30-gallon queen
palm in one to maintain the row and it hasn't grown a
centimeter in 5 years.

Sometimes there's stuff down there in Texas: kaliche,
some weird gas, or some badboy like a gopher who
likes a certain route. Sometimes the spot holds too
much or no water...then I get a pick axe and spend an
afternoon "improving the hole" (importing soil from a
creekbank).

I hate digging up palms...it took me years to get where
my transplant/failure rate was only 50/50.

Unlike other trees palms are hard to keep at an even level. They'll all grow at their own pace. Digging up palms is best done in stages - a trench around them then covered over to keep the roots wet and let them recover. Then cut through the roots underneath and move the plant.

The biggest palm I moved was a 4 metre Livistona australis. It was in a rocky creek gully and it's root system had every thing eroded away. It was toppling over and I decided to save its life. Trouble was the slope was steep and bouldery. No possibility to go up, about 30 metres down was a river (estuary) where I could come in by boat. I cut away the remaining fronds leaving only the crown shaft. Then I manhandled this large heavy trunk down amongst/around the boulders. Many times I just wanted to give up, especially the times it would jam with all its weight pushing it further between the rocks. But I just couldn't walk away from it. Eventually got it to the boat (punt actually) and took it home. A tidal creek ran up the side of my place so I was able to off load it in the back yard onto level ground. Hoisting it up wasn't easy either but at this stage the least of my problems. Then I put a hose on it right at the crown and trickled water down it for a number of months. For a couple of years it only put out small fronds but gradually these got larger. Last I saw (sold the place some years ago) it looked like it had been there forever, with natural sized fronds.

Didn't end up digging up the Arenga. I noticed a shoot a little way out from the main plant. Often get seedling Caryota mitis coming up all over the place, they're considered an environmentl weed here. This shoot looks a bit like Caryota, but then that's also how Arenga hookeriana looks as well. It's a stronger looking shoot than most Caryota seedlings have, although it's also a fair way out from the main plant. So I've left it to grow more for a positive indentification. I'm constantly pulling Caryotas out and will do the same to this if it ends up being one.

Can't imagine hauling off a 4 meter palm. Largest things I
transplanted that size were some banana trees and one
of them crushed my wheelbarrow tire flat.

Come to think of it I have all kinds plants that "grow legs"
if that is what yours is doing. Most of them are in pots at
the ends of their lives and regrowing from roots.

Others, like my running mesquite trees emerge hundreds
of meters away from their mothers and start whole new
groves.

I had some palms on a hillside that had exposed roots like your pics.
My master gardener friend convinced me never to stake trees.
With our constant winds, he said, the roots get stronger on their own.
So I built a box of 2x10's around them and filled them with dirt and
they thrived.

And it's a job I'm not planning to do in a hurry again. But once committed I had to see it through to the end, which finally was a happy ending. Here's where I posted a story about moving another large plant, a lot less than 4 metres and on flat ground, a Typhonodorum lindleyanum: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/967870/

I think you're right on this one having curled up roots that need freeing up and spreading out. If it's suckering then the problem might be sorting itself out. But if the new shoot turns out to be a Caryota then I'll lift the Arenga and spread its roots system out. There's still enough time left in the wet season to do this without undue stress to the plant.

I loved your water garden saga. Great journaling; I must say
a tractor comes in handy...I am the only one without one around here:
I use a 3-wheeler with a self-built trailer that can get anywhere...without sinking.
It works so well I have truck I haven't moved in three years.

Yet another reason not to listen to nurseries. You spoke of coconut palms.
A few years back Lowes (I believe they're heading into hardware with Woolworth's Down
Under; here they're 100% home improvement) had these coconut palms
for sale...whole potted sprouting coconuts. They wanted quite a bit of $$ for
them. I called the nursery on their tags (a couple hours North toward
Houston) and asked what magical hybrid they had developed to grow
these in Zone 9. They asked where I was and ASSURED me they would
thrive. They couldn't speak "species". I didn't buy.

About six months later I noted the whole tray of them marked down dirt
cheap and looking like a hog had at them. Since then I have seen them all
over: dead in pots in peoples backyards, patios, etc., even out on barrier
islands where it never frosts. I'll just never forget the nursery guy where they
came from being so enthusiastic about my climate/his palms.

I have so much area to slash I'd be lost without the tractor. It's really old and I dread the thought that one day it might 'die'. But there's a lot of my place it can't go on during the wet season.

We have a big chain store, probably much the same as your Walmart, that distributes the same stuff all over the country. A lot of their plants are totally unsuitable for the climate here but 'big people' down south decide on what's going to be sold, and that's what they all sell.

On another site I was involved in a long discussion on where coconuts would grow. People from different parts of the world related where they seen them growing. I was surprised. There's some growing in northern New South Wales, but not fruiting. Never thought they'd grow that far south, although it was a frost free area. Quite a few were wishing they'd cultivate a variety that would cope with real cold.

Update on the "upwardly mobile" Arenga. The new shoot is definitely a Caryota mitis, as can be seen in the photo. Just last weekend I pulled 20 to 30 small ones out. They are invasive, the seeds carried by birds and flying foxes.

Interesting...I know a guy who has a "Fishtail"
planted by landscapers by his pool. I saw a bunch
for sale in Houston once and looked them up.
Thought they looked a little raggedy.

One man's trophy is another man's weed!
Reminds me of my friend making fun of me for "cultivating"
waxleaf ligustrums (they make quick awesome hedges).
Whose red berry is that?

Those Fishtails (Caryota mitis) are great when small but tend to look a bit ragged when they get really big. I've got a few clumps but I cut them back to ground level regularly so there's only small plants, 2 to 3 metres maximum. They don't get a chance to flower and seed. Unfortunately there's too many large ones around on other properties so the birds and flying foxes bring seeds in.

The red fruits are Carpentaria acuminata. They come up like lawn grass but they're native here. That's another one that the birds and flying foxes distribute, although they're everywhere anyway. I've got about 100 very tall trees of those, about 10,000 seedlings and small plants to about 1 metres tall.

Those are awesome (look'd 'em up).
My arugula is thriving.

I had to look up arugula, hadn't heard of it before.

Carpentaria acuminata loaded with fruit. They're very prolific.

Sorry.

My cold weather humour didn't make it.
Moving to South Texas years back was an adjustment: I discovered that tomatoes
were "cold weather crops" started around Xmas. They won't produce
in summer. So, to underscore the irony, since now it gets arctic here too, I
embraced one thing that thrives year around (from -10 to 35C): arugula.
It just doesn't make much of an impact planted around a swimming pool.

I thought I read somewhere you were in Northern Italy so I reasoned
you must have encountered something arugula filled/topped/infused.
That's a nice pic of the Carpentaria acuminata...I can understand why you
left the fruit sit after reading about it. Your bats must be able to
digest anything. Of course, I've got these plants on my fence lines called
"bird peppers"... eaten/deposited by regular old birds...that send a standard
human being screaming out of the kitchen.

In my "young and wreckless years" I did my travelling and spent a little time working in northern Italy (the only time in my life I managed to become a millionaire - have a photo of myself with over a million lire, LOL). Alto Adige, or Sudtirol as the German speaking locals called it. Spent 4 years travelling Europe.

The fruit of the Carpentarias is very toxic, except to flying foxes and some birds, praticularly the Imperial Torresian Pigeons, The pigeons migrate each wet season across to us from Indonesia and New Guinea and feed on these and many other small fruits. Although the fruit is red, the droppings are jet black and stain the plants below.