look at these Butia* palm flowers, June 15th, 2023.
[ID: Two photographs of a palm tree from the genus Butia.
The first photo is taken from ground level, looking up at the tree, which has long green fronds. In the center is a large flower stalk that is yellow and red.
The second photo zooms in on the flower stalk, showing that it is covered in thousands of tiny yellow and red flowers.
End ID.]
the asterisk is because this is from the genus Butia, not a specific species. It used to be just one species, but then it was split into two, and I have no idea how to tell the two apart, and most people growing / selling them also don't know or just don't care.
These trees are also sometimes called Pindo palms, or jelly palms. Sometimes African jelly palms, though they're not from Africa.
Either way, if the flowers are pollinated (and there was a bee flying around up there helping!), the trees will form golf-ball sized orange fruits (I think they're technically dates?) that are sometimes called pina colada fruits, because they taste super tropical and awesome.
Here's two, each from a different tree. Like animals, plants are their own individuals, and each have their own individual traits, so some trees will have bigger fruits than others, and they'll each have their own unique flavor:
[ID: A photograph of two white hands holding up two Butia palm fruits to the camera. Both are orange, but the one on the left is smaller and more deeply orange, with unblemished skin, and the one on the right is larger, wider, and slightly paler orange, with some bruising on the skin. On the sidewalk in the background, and the grass next to it, more of the smaller orange fruits can be seen. End ID.]
The smaller one here was growing at a gas station, so uh, yeah don't eat fruits growing at gas stations even if you know the species itself isn't poisonous, lol. You also obviously need to make sure when you're collecting the fruit in general that it has not been sprayed with pesticide.
If your neighbors grow these trees and you know they don't use pesticides or anything, you can probably ask if it's okay to collect the fruit, and they'll probably thank you since it means they don't have to do it themselves.
If You own one of these trees, you can spread a tarp or a net out below the tree to catch the fruit when it falls so it doesn't get dirty :)
These fruits are very fiberous, so they can cause an upset stomach for some people, but you can squish them and drink the juice, which is where it gets the name African jelly palm -- mix the juice with pectin, and you've got some fruity tropical jelly!
They have a single seed in the center, which is.......pretty sure the word is polyembryonic, it's one seed but it's got three or four uh, babies inside. So if you grow one seed, you should get multiple seedlings that come up.
You can look at a seed and see each of the different...embyros. I'm not sure if that's even the right word for this but eh.
[ID: Two photos placed next to eachother of a cleaned seed from a Butia palm, held by a white hand over a sidewalk. The seed is light brown, has a hard coat, and is oval shaped, with a dark circle toward the narrow end. When turned upright, three lines can be seen trisecting the seed into three sections. End ID.]
These trees are commonly planted in the southern united states as decorative trees, and most people don't know the fruit's edible, or if they do, they just don't care.
We collected a bunch of seeds last year but weren't sure how to get them growing, so now I have one in a container of water and dirt with some canna lilies as part of the experiment.
I'm not sure how long it takes these trees until they can produce fruit, but if you find one with fruit on it...definitely make a note to come back in August or so and see if you can get any when it's ripe.
Pindo, Butia, or Jelly palms can be told apart from other commonly planted palm trees in the Southern US from their long fronds with the leaves radiating out from the central, vein, while most other palms have fronds with a long stem, then a fan shape at the end where the leaves radiate out:
[ID: An MS paint drawing of two scribbled palm fronds drawn in green.
The top one is labeled, "Cabbage palm native to North America" with a smiley emoticon, and continues, "Technically also has edible fruit but it's tiny with a big seed and dry and the birds will appreciate it more. Shaped like a hand or fan." The frond has a long stem, then a wider, jagged end. Several small black circles are labeled, "Tiny black fruits".
The second one is labeled, "Butia / Pindo native to South America" with a smiley emoticon, and continues, "Shaped like a feather", with several orange and gold circles labeled, "Yay fruit" and "golf-ball sized fruits", with one having orange lines radiating out from it. End ID.]
These fruits ripen around August, so keep an eye out then! You can collect them off the ground (if it's safe to do so), or if you've got a ladder or step stool, off the branch if they're ripe enough to come off easily.
If / when I get any of the seeds to germinate I will let you know :)
