Talk:Chamaedorea plumosa

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Has anyone else noticed a preponderance of male plants as mentioned in "CURIOSITIES?" There are obviously female plants around, but in 6 plants I have, they are all male. and I talked with Pauleen before, and all of hers are males as well. dypsisdean

  • Not sure why, but it seems that a huge majority of C plumosas in cultivation in California are male, with females being a rarity. It is one of the few Chamaedoreas that are relatively easy to sex, once they flower, as the inflorescences look different. Males have large, recurving flowers while females have smaller, upright flowers- the difference is pronounced.
  • Geoff, please "sign" your name to your comments and delete this.
  • Geoff, thanks for confirming what I have also observed. I have had this discussion with others and they have not agreed with us. I was beginning to think I was hallucinating. Can you go into any more detail? What is the exact proportion you have noticed? Have you ever seen a female in California? I have heard they are supposedly hard to sex, and I must be sexing them incorrectly. I don't know how. I just know that Jim Wright sexed all 6 of mine as male. Dypsisdean 00:31, 26 July 2007 (PDT)


As C.plumosa is a relatively "new" spp. here in Western Australia I only know of one pair of flowering plants. Fortunately these two plants are of each sex and grown from seed. My experience when buying a heavy seed producing spp. is if your purchasing for seed production you need at least 8 plants if they came from the same batch of seed to guarantee at least one seed producing pair. If possible, purchase plants or seeds from different locations to improve male to female ratio's as well as helping to improve the gene pool.

My guess for the shortage of female plants in California is due to the same supplier growing and selling plants from the same seed source time and time again. A genetic flaw in the parent plants is the most likely cause. --Kamipalms 05:18, 26 July 2007 (PDT)

  • Jason, Thanks a lot for adding your insights. You sure picked up on using the wiki quickly. Do you have any comments on the ease of differentiating the sexes in this species? Hope to see you around from time to time. Dypsisdean 12:00, 26 July 2007 (PDT)