I heard of attempts to hybridise with either syagrus or jubaea, obviously without success. Don't know any more than that unfortunately, it would be interesting to hear more (if there is more to tell). It doesn't seem instinctively right to me that it could work, since coconuts are so much more tropical than their south american cousins. Would be great if it could be done, most of the hybrids in this family look great :)

Alex

I have a strong inclination to believe any hybridizing of a cocos nucifera will be unsuccessful.

However, I am certain that there are coconuts growing in the tropics at higher altitudes that are more resistant to cooler weather. I saw three coconuts growing right along a street in Tres Rios, Costa Rica (5700Ft). They had approximately 6 feet of clear trunk. Whether or not they would ever fruit, I don't know.

I hoping some big botanical/agricultural research place like UFL figures out how to modify tropical palms and bamboo genetically for cold hardiness, not all the way to Zone5 but promoting from zone 10 to zone 8 would be fine. :)

Kinda tired of just MX fans, Med fans, windmills, a few canaries, fewer butias and queens around here.

Hey UnAutre,

At least where you live you can successfully grow Mexican Fans, Canaries and Queens. Here is this sucky 8a zone I am in all three of the above mentioned either turn a sh#@ brown color from the frost or they are killed outright.

Oh well, we grow what we can. I would love for some kind of hybridizing to work.

Darell-East Texas

I believe the biggest problem with hybridizing coconut palms with "cold hardy" palm (Jubaea, Butia etc.) are chomosome counts. Kind of like trying to cross a bear with a tiger. I'm no scientist but I'm certain even if a lab could eventually cross these palms, the price tag would be astronomical.

Cheers, Barrie.

It would take a while but I believe that we could create a more hardy type of almost all palms through selective breeding. Just grow 100,000 of them, subject them to a freeze and see if we can get 4 or 5 survivors. Hopefully we'll have at least one male and one female in the mix and can breed the strongest ones. It would be pretty easy to do with popular palms like Sabals and Washingtonias but I'm not sure it would lend itself easily to cocos. If we were to attempt some kind of genetic altering, I feel the best place to suggest it would be a university in a marginal area where the demand for their production would be strongest (Oklahoma City, Dallas, Southern Arkansas, Atlanta, Raleigh, etc.)

the U of FL would worry much more about further research on resistance to leathal yellowing than cold hardiness on palms. ANd, since we've already got a Maypan out there, the energy would be focused on other issues.

FLoridians seem sto focus much more on the use of native or approriate exotics that match the existing climate/soi/pH rather than specifically actively trying to "push nature".

KinzyJr,

In all likelyhood there's already been 100,000 coconut palms killed in the name of "selective breading". Even the very few survivors would be very rough looking and in need of special care in hopes a repeat performance wasn't in the cards for next season. Too many set backs and the survivors are goners too.

Cheers, Barrie.

The origins of parajubaea are (thought to be) exactly what you are talking about doing. Why not grow one of those?

Please correct me if I am wrong but, aren't parajubaea palms very slow growing?

Yes, and I suggest you think about *why* they are slow growing. Do you expect science to repeat the process that is likely to have created parajubaea and obtain significantly different results? No matter how much you selectively breed, a plant's growth rate will still be limited by physics.

Several of us [e. g. Ed Brown] have tried to cross coconut with Butia, and in some cases other Butiinae. It didn't turn out to be a near miss, but rather a far miss, judging by the lack of fruit formation. Fruit without endosperm would have resulted from a near miss, although there is no guarantee repetition would have improved those results.
The production of luminescent zebrafish by insertion of jellyfish DNA suggests possibilities, though.

That's an interesting question, but I'd think there are always limitations even with selective breeding over perhaps even centuries of trial and error, etc etc. and the genes have to be there for exceptional cold hardiness, so unless some mutant ones do show up, it's still unlikely we'll see palms survive in the coldest parts of the world without some special outdoor protection. It's still questionable I'd guess how the most cold hardy plants survive, though in most cases it means cell walls that won't rupture , when the cells freeze, etc. etc. and in some cases plants do posess some chemicals most like super dooper antifreeze to prevent freezing except at the coldest temperatures. I guess however, knowing my own nature and that perhaps of many gardeners , if we could easily grow palms in our cold climates , much as they do in warm ones and had many palms around us and commonplace, we might not find them so alluring perhaps?? I'd still love them though most likely even if common-place!