Pony Tail Palms inflorescence

I never knew Pony Tail Palms flowered. I've had three of them growing under the thick shade of a big olive tree (that was removed just a couple of months ago) the last seven years or so and I was really surprised at the beautiful flower the one on the left was displaying when I came home from work the other night. Talk about doing a double-take!

My GF and I took a brisk walk around the neighborhood yesterday morning, only to discover that there are a lot of them doing this in other yards. So I'm reckoning that they need sun to do this. They never did it before while growing in the shade. Can I expect the other two to follow suit and sprout a flower?

This message was edited Jun 20, 2007 1:56 PM

Really interesting bloom. I've never seen anything quite like it. I realized these are not true palms and their flowers pretty much confirm that. I've never seen a "real" palm flower like this.

It has some qualities almost like an ear of corn. You can't eat these can you? Well you can't blame a guy for asking! =-)

Nature, the most amazing designer!

Nice Pictures FOF.....I have a few small pony tails in my gazebo....I like the way they look....I didn't know they grew to that size....awesome.....

pics taken Sunday 06.24.07 the bloom is opening up nicely only four days later

fascinating what a little direct sun will do for these. think the other ones will be blooming soon?

That is amazing ...do you smell anything?...I wonder what sort of fruit you will get?

I will have to take some more pics of this flower. It has opened out now like a Christmas tree! I imagine the flower will turn to seed. At least that what it looks like it will do.

BTW, does anyone know if this is the Beaucarnea recurvata variety?

It is Beaucarnea recurvata... not sure what you mean by variety, though.

The flora book says there are 3 different ones...guatemalensis...stricta and recurvata....I think yours looks like the stricta...the book also says that it is closely related to the yukka which would explain the flowers...it also says it grows from the seed or offsets....It is fantastic! never seen one in flower before! :)

Oops Sorry meant recurvata......=^O.....:)))

maybe wrong choice of words? There are three kinds of Pony Tail Palms in the plant files and I didn't know which one...
thanks for the ID, Beaucarnea recurvata it is!

Thankyou for letting us see it it is lovely :^)

I notice most of the postings for the Ponytail are from California. I just had to post my Ponytail from Florida.
The plant never bloomed for 14 years and then I saw the BIG flower. It sure was a real surprise

I bought a little one for my tiki bar, gives a great tropical look......Animallover.........put a full picture of your ponytail on, it looks to be quite large.....
`

this WAS a big surprise. The other two show no signs of blooming. Maybe they are males?
It's opened up to the max now... I suppose all that's left is the ripening of the seed.

So should I just leave this flower on, or should I prune it?
Maybe if I let it go to seed I'll have a whole bunch of ponytails springing up next spring....

I took this pic at Woodland Nursery in Vista, CA. I found out that when one of these blooms, the original single head falls off and multiple heads form at the base of the flower. These flowers were huge on this multiple-headed Ponytail.

thanks for the thread. I now know where to plant my PT. Anyone know the cold hardiness of these plants?

they are hardy to 9a, but i am going to give them a try even though i am not technically 9a. i use zone 9 as my zone because we are so close to the coast, it never gets below 20, and hardly even into the 20's.

Went to the Santa Barbara Zoo yesterday. They had several PTs just about ready to flower. Took some pics, so I will try to post soon.

here they are...

amazing blooms, these trees have. I've seen quite a few around town, now that I know what I'm looking at.

Venturan, did you see any interesting palms at the SB zoo?

Yeah a few, I didn't have time to upload them yet, but I will start a new thread in the next couple of days with a bunch of pics. With an eye out for palms, I must say I was quite disappointed in the variety, so don't get your hopes up too much. However, there was one nice established area (you get a glimpse in the background of the pic above).

Michael

Went back to the SB Zoo today. Same ponytail (from 4 posts up) taken 2 weeks later...

lots of bees lovin on this plant, even though you can't see em in the pic

I had a ton of bees all over my flower. It's kind of turning to a powdery, pale yellow skeleton now.