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Florida Royal Palm Seeds Float?

8 years ago

I recently got some Florida Royal Palm seeds and the instructions for germination say soak them for 24 hours. When I put them in the water ALL of them floated. Yet my Sabal Palmetto and Windmill palm seeds did not float. Are the seeds bad or are they meant to float? I know Sabal Palmetto and windmill palm seeds should not float but the Florida Royal Palm seeds? Please help, thank you!

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Comments (5)

mesembs
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Hey!

A while back, I purchased some Cuban Royal Palm seeds (Roystonea Regia), and, like yours, every single one of them floated.

I tried to research this, but there wasn't very much information. I did find a couple of gardenweb posts including growers that also questioned the floating.

So, while I do not directly know that they float, I will go ahead and say that floating has nothing to do with their viability.

Good luck with those seeds!!

~palmsandsnow
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GardenDude thanked mesembs
garyfla_gw
8 years ago
Hi

Funny that I have grown many of these from seed that I collected but never soaked them so have no idea if they float I usually just stuck them in a pot and waited can't remember the germination rate but a couple of them are over 30 feet now so I guess it worked ?? lol gary
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User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Some palm seeds do float. It's how they move from one place to another other via water. They are also very tolerant of salt water, because they can float around forever in the ocean waiting to be washed up on shore to germinate.
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secretsquirrel007
8 years ago
http://www.virtualherbarium.org/horticulture/palmseed.html
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User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
"Some growers advocate using a seed float test. The seeds are placed in
water and those that float are discarded as non-viable. However, some
palm seeds naturally float because they are dispersed in nature by
water. Furthermore, some growers have found that if the floating seeds
are planted, a sizable number will germinate. There are several
recognized ways to quickly test seed viability on a random sample of the
entire lot:" UF/IFAS Palm Seed Germination
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