Identify this tree?

[Shaun Austin]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a house with a tree in the front patio. I'd like to identify the name of the tree and the type of root it has as i'd like to remove it. See the attached photo.

Also, I've been told these trees are worth quite a bit of money. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, is it possible to sell it once it's been dug up or will it just die?

Thanks in advance.

Shaun

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[David E. Ross]

It's a fan palm of some kind, possibly Washingtonia. Where I live, these come up as volunteers. There is a whole grove of them about a half-mile from my house, none of which were planted. I have one that I found sprouting in one of my beds; it's now in a large flower pot on my front path.

In the UK, however, these are quite unlikely to be volunteers. While they tend to be among the more hardy palms, they probably do not bloom and set seeds as readily as they do where I live. Thus, they might command a good price there.

Palms have advantitious roots. That is, they do not have a tap root. Furthermore, they readily send out new roots from the base of the trunk. Thus, they are easily transplanted. A fan palm the size in your photo might transplant well with a root ball that is only 2ft by 2ft.

You might want to contact a garden centre and ask if they would like to have the palm. Not only is it possible they will remove it for free, but also they might even pay you for it.

[lannerman]

Hi Shaun, Its a European Hardy Fan Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) If you wanted to buy one of this size, it would cost several hundred pounds !! You would need to lift a few paving stones to get a rootball out but it wouldnt need to be that big, about 2-3ft across. I would put an advert in your local paper, buyer removes and ask about £150

They actually move very easily, if I was moving it, Id tie all the fronds up, then dig a trench around it 18" away from the trunk, until the rootball was free. Then comes the hard bit, a palm of this size, with a rootball will be very heavy, ideally you need some type of mechanical lifting device to winch it out but be careful to put good boards down to protect the slabs ??

Lannerman.

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[Shaun Austin]

Thanks very much to both of you for your advice. I think i'll ask a garden centre and see where that takes me.

Thanks,

Shaun

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[echinosum]

There's a hilarious youtube video of someone taking a very large palm tree out with mechanical lifting gear, and then the tree falls over and destroys someone's expensive car. So there are other things you need to be careful about to, such as the law of gravity. Have some ropes and anchor points...

Reminds me of when I was a child, I thought if you took a wedge out of a tree trunk then it would fall that way when you cut it through, like on the animated cartoons. So I did that, and it fell the other way and broke a window...

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