My iPhone, sleek and neat in its azalea-colored bumper, is the linkage to my past and present worlds. Two weeks ago I published a blog post featuring snaps from my iPhone, one picture about a sago palm tree on our patio.

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Now I’m musing about another encounter with a sago palm tree, this time at a previous residence with two sago palms. Back then, I was taking a family history course offered by Dr. Ben Vogt. As I listened to his seventh lecture, I heard the passion in his voice full of invitation to move past the stale draft of my first memoir on my desktop, “I’ll have to insert more sensory detail,” I decided. “And dialogue too!” The lecture was intense and I felt the need for air after the instruction and walked out into my patio garden where I snapped a photo of both of our sago palm trees, one flecked with fallen live oak leaves – an image of a deciduous tree merging with tropical shrub.

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I was worn out from keeping my writing chair warm, neck tendons and shoulder muscles taut and sore. And so, cell phone in hand, I got my body moving from sedentary to upright, walking from my office desk just three steps through the French door out to the shady patio, adorned on all sides with evergreen, palm, late-autumn impatiens, and a parlor palm that needed light and air, stuck in the corner as it was with the diminishing light of the approaching solstice.
Snap, snap. A photo of the large sago that months ago bore a penis-like cone, long and drooping as it aged toward maturity. The other smaller one had a mass of red-orange berries snuggled into the wiry pubic hair nested bull’s eye in the center of the palm.

Sago Palm cone – Dreamstime image

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Now I am wondering about the sex life of the sago palms on our previous property. One may have been female and the other male. I probably had one of each, but I will have to find out via research, so I queried Google.
Oh, for gosh sakes – I had no idea sex was going on so flagrantly in my own back yard. Yes, I have noticed the long golden cone structure, somewhat reminiscent of a pinecone in the center of one of the larger palm plant. And the other one, younger and smaller has produced a round, fuzzy mass, orangey red-gold in color. Either the wind or bees has blown male matter over to the receptive female center about 20 feet away. Oh, and according to Nikki Phipps, author of the Bulb-o-licious Garden, what I have referred to as a the sago palm is actually not a palm tree at all, but a Cycad.
And according to Susan Patterson, master Gardener, Cycad plants are hardy, evergreen gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants) that grow in sand or hard rock. Cycads are dioecious plants; there are separate male and female plants. The female plant produces seeds, and the male plant produces cones filled with pollen.
Who knew?
Naturally, I have observed these differences between our sago palms over the last ten years, but somehow they never registered in my conscious mind – until now.
Wow!
Fresh foliage evolving

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And then, unfolding . . . !

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He hath made every thing beautiful in his time . . . .
What plants (trees, bushes, flowers) do you admire in your own agricultural zone?
What plants have surprised you with their growth, or lack thereof?
Good morning, Marian! I can’t imagine the young Marian in PA writing about plant penises and pubic hair! 😂
I am so ignorant when it coms to plants. I do admire the wild plants and flowers that grow on the river beach at the park from seeds carried by the wind, or birds, or squirrels–or maybe the river. They seem so determined to thrive.
You are right about the young Marian!
We are having so much trouble overcoming the disease in our current sago palm, I decided to write about the healthy ones in our plant history. 😀
Aww–I hope you’re able to cure them, and they’re off to their wild, wanton ways, Marian! 😂
On their way to recover, I hope!
YAY!
Hi,
I like this article. You made me laugh. I agree with you.
Hadassah, my plant agrees with you. Somehow she keeps sprouting new babies, but I don’t know from where since I don’t have any other plants in flower pots in the house. However, she keeps growing and continues to stay green.
Last week, my girlfriend brought me beautiful cut flowers out of South Africa. They are sitting in water in a vase in my living room, and Hadassah is sitting in my dining room next to my computer. But that is not so far away, so maybe the flowers are impregnating Hadassah! 😂
You have brought out the humor in you in this article. Great job!
Have a lovely day.
Shalom shalom
The world will keep turning in a positive way, if we notice plants that are thriving. You’ve given a benevolent name to your plant. No wonder it is thriving. I’m happy you also have fresh flowers to enjoy.
Thank you, Pat! 😀
For a minute, there, I thought I was going to have to avert my eyes!
I blushed. 🙂
Not just me, then!
LIZ, thank you! 😀
You’re welcome, Marian!
I live near lots of trees. I can’t say I’m surprised by their growth. I’d say I’m more delighted by the changing colors this fall. Last summer I was surprised by the voracious growth of a lily a friend planted in her garden. She thought it was pretty and planted it, only to discover that it was an invasive species. Soon it had taken over a large section of her yard. She and her husband had to remove them.
I love lilies, but I guess you have had to remove them because they are invasive, which seems sad to me.
Blessings on the changing colors of the fall leaves. I envy you at this time of year. Still, we can look forward to a mild winter–and NO more hurricanes, I hope.
Thank you, L. Marie!
Marian, “You sexy thing” was the song you brought to mind. Delightful! The photos really make the point.
You do remember that I was once a farm girl. Tee hee! 😀
Shall I shield my 11 year old grandsons from this post?? Ha. 🙂 The photos are absolutely lovely and great to enjoy with you over the miles.
I agree: This post doesn’t quite match my usual online persona. I found the idea for the post in a lesson I had prepared for a family history course long ago. I’m glad you enjoyed it, Melodie!
Well, Miss Marian, you surprised us again with your writing and humor. I will have to check our marriage license to see if all of your charms and wit were part of the written part of our ceremony 🙂
Actually I think many flowers have both sexes right in the middle of all their beauty. Sometimes the bees have to gather pollen and in doing so pollinate the flower.
Thanks for reminisce and the wisdom in your comment, Mr. Cliff! 😀
Oh my gosh, Marian, you had me laughing out loud on this post! 😂😂 When Liz G said she was going to have to avert her eyes, I howled! A truly original post from a true original! That unfolding photo is stunning. Thanks for the interesting botany lesson; I love learning new things. Bravo! 🙂
After the blush. . the botany lesson!
I’m glad you caught the lesson and found the humor. You are a true original too, Ms. Melanie. 😀
❤️😀
Plants are amazing living things. I love the yucca plants that grow in our neighbourhood. They look fabulous when they flower but it only happens once every three or four years! Not an active sex life then. A great post!!
Darlene, I associate the yucca plant with Arizona and New Mexico, but I’m happy to hear it flourishes in Spain too. Thanks for adding to the conversation here once again. 😀
Hi Marian, this is an interesting and amusing post. We have a cactus plant that produces pink penis-like flowers. They are quite obscene looking.
You are such a visual person; I’m glad you caught the botany lesson and the humor. Thanks for stopping by to comment, Robbie! 😀
Hello Marian, interesting read about your ferns. I am familiar with the true sago palm (metroxylon sagu) as a cash crop (rich in starch) in Sarawak, East Malaysia, where I lived as a Peace Corps volunteer over 50 years ago. These days I enjoy a modest fern garden at the shady side of my house in Seattle where there is plenty of rain. So many beautiful varieties of ferns! I hadn’t really considered their sex lives! I barely know the varieties. My favorite is the Himalayan maidenhair fern. Thanks for grabbing our attention about these beautiful plants.
Thank you Bonnie! It’s good to hear from you. I hope your writing is going well.
And thank you for adding to our knowledge of the Sago palm. I too love ferns. My favorite is a fern I enjoy, a “grand-daughter” from my Grandma Longenecker’s indoor plants. I think of her every time I water it. I have a maidenhair fern too. It’s alive, but I wouldn’t say it’s thriving. I have it on a stand on my lanai now, but I had to take it in because of rough weather and it hasn’t been the same since. I love it’s fine fronds. Maybe it needs more sun. Hmmm. 😀
You sure know how to “talk dirty.” Ha. Beautiful, sensuous writing about the sexy nature of plants – thank goodness – ’cause our world would be stark and naked without sexy plants. I love the sensuousness of orchids and always have one or two in my house. But my ‘brag’ is that a few months ago I was shopping in a grocery store and heard someone calling me. I answered the soft sigh – it was a green house plant suffocating from lack of light and love. $49.99. I talked to a saleswoman and said I’d take her off their hands for $20. Deal. Tinkerbell is thriving now in the corner of our kitchen nook. The only problem is that she’s growing so fast, she’s taking up a lot of the nook! I found out she’s called a ‘giant Taro.’ uh ohhhhh. 🙂
Yippee to you for rescuing the sad, forsaken plant. If I can do it without much fuss, I water parched plants in (some) public places. Once when I visited my niece, the African violet in her guest bedroom was suffering from lack of light and water. I watered it, and it seemed to do better for awhile. When I saw her a few months ago, I asked about her violet. And it was Boo Hoo!
Thank you, oh chivalrous plant rescuer. 😀
Oh dear. You wish you could have taken “Violet” home with you!
Marian, you made me laugh with this blog post! Yes, plants have a sex life as well! I have a plant my daughters and I call the “penis plant” because it produces red waxy heart shaped flowers with a gold colored thing sticking straight up. I lost the label with the real name on it so can’t even tell you what the proper name is!
We have to believe that the Creator has a sense of humor too. Look at the plants, the animals–and exotic looking fish. Robbie Cheadle (above) has a cactus similar to a plant you describe. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know the proper name: Your description is vivid enough. Thank you, Elfrieda! 😀
Haha, wonderful. What lush life you have right in your own backyard. It always pays to look deeply into something. You never know what you’ll find.
Arlene, I know you have lush life of a different sort in Ottawa. Thank you for paying attention to the sago palms in our back yard. 😀
What plants (trees, bushes, flowers) do you admire in your own agricultural zone? I like burning bushes that just quietly grow everywhere, looking like nothing special, until fall arrives and then those bushes turn bright red, complete show-offs.
I can picture the bright red “burning” bushes, the complete show-offs, maybe rivaling the kind Moses may have seen. Sometimes you show us scenes around your property, on your blog– so pretty in their own way. Thanks for all this, Ally! 😀
You, and therefore we as well, are learning a lot about sago palms, Marian! As you can imagine we’ve noticed special flora – and fauna – on our travels throughout South America. Some I take photos of; others I just appreciate.
Yesterday, I saw a gorgeous, single bird of paradise plant in a pot outside a financial building in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, and I had the need to take a photo of it. Because it looked pretty and perfect – despite being planted and surrounded by concrete – and because it brings back memories of when I first laid eyes on this plant and flower when meeting Mark in California exactly twenty years ago. 🙂
Liesbet, certainly you have seen sago palms on your SA travels, maybe even before.
I LOVE the bird of paradise, too, very showy and unique. It strikes me that the sharp contours may resemble Cupid’s arrow, the one that struck you when meeting Mark twenty years ago.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have had a long and adventuresome life together. Yay! 😀
Marian — I’m doing heavy-duty research for the Sean McPherson novel I’m writing. This blast post provided a delightful—wholly unexpected!—diversion. Thank you!
You work so very, very hard. I’m glad this post provided a delightful diversion.
All best to you, dear Laurie!
My son has said apple trees can be Male or female. I’m hoping mine is a girl. I have too many men at home. Even my pet piggy is male. 🤣
Well, Jenn, I do hope your apple tree is a girl. In the meantime, call her Jenn-ette!
Thanks for checking in! 😀
Oh my! I’m blushing, Marian!
That’s what Shirley said in a previous comment.
It seemed as though it was time to shake things up a bit, Barbara. I guess that’s what happened in this post! 😀
Haha! Yes, I missed this post before, but I’m so glad I came around. Can you imagine how the neighbors will talk if the word gets out? “What’s going on in the Beaman’s backyard? You don’t think their plants are having sex again, do you?”
You might have to start charging admission. 🤣 I mean to see your beautiful backyard—not to watch your plants getting touchy feely with each other. 😊
I hear the chuckle in your voice here. Thanks for checking in, Pete. 😀
Who knew? The plants in your world are so different from mine. Nature has many magic tricks. Even after walking my trails and visiting the shores of Seneca Lake for 50 years, there are new things to notice every time. And there is beauty everywhere. May we cherish the beauty we’ve been given and take care of our fragile Earth. Thank you, Marian, for sharing a different view of the world.
Yes, this is a different view of the world, Elaine. Some readers thought my post was a little bit racy–haha!
I agree, our earth is fragile. That is why I recycle, avoid pesticides as much as possible, take walks in the preserve and enjoy the clouds! 😀