This one is a baby. I had another one.....several years ago I bought one in a mass buy I made from Floribunda in Hawaii. They have a $100 minimum before shipping so you have to really want you some palms LOL (The other good Hawaiian palm nursery was Kapoho Palms, I believe only Floribunda is still in business). I made the huge mistake of buying this palm and planting it into the ground inside the greenhouse right by the path on the most narrow side of my stream. It quickly grew (and I mean QUICKLY, like over 18 months or less) to a height of about 7 feet at the crown (where the leaves exit). The trunk got really thick really fast. The spines on the trunk were about 4-5 inches very thick and extremely sharp. Every time I was working over there I would back up into that palm and bet speared in the but. I finally had to remove it. It was just too dangerous. But all that aside it is a beautiful palm. SO I saw another one here locally and it was only $12....I caved and against the better judgement of the friend who was with me at the time I brought it home. I am keeping this one in the container and it is more slow growing. I plan to place it in an out of the way spot in a corner soon when I get to rearranging the greenhouse. That way I won't put an eye out or something.
@ardesia, there was a man who a friend of mine who was a true palmophile knew who lived over in Jacksonville who had a huge Licuala spinosa in his back yard that he had there for about 20 years. My friend visited him and took a photo. Then in 2010 when the entirety of Florida had that really harsh 10 day streak of freezing weather, he lost that palm.
I have several different species of Licualas that have done extremely well for me in the greenhouse. Except for three: Licuala grandis, Licuala cordata, and Licuala orbicularis. Of course you know that the last two are exceptionally rare...I had small ones and even keeping the GH at 60F at night was not warm enough for them. They died and I was crushed. My Licuala grandis I had for maybe 7 years? It was quite large and just a show stopper. It died when the greenhouse heater failed on a very cold night. They are very cold sensitive. But all the other Licualas I have pulled though no problem. My Marquesas Palm (Pelagodoxa henryana) was damaged then but has since recovered. This is an old photo of my Licuala little L. orbicularis
And L. cordata
and my sweet L. grandis
I looked into replacing ,y L. grandis, I remember when I bought it it was $12.50. To replace it now with a starter palm that already has the more mature entire fronds would cost over $150.
