Wintertime surprise

The Burmese fishtail palm in the local conservatory had a lavish display of buds and blooms to brighten a January day.

How unusual! I thought palms didn't have flowers in the normal "decorative" sense. Is the yellow structure the flower?

What a lovely, lush banner. I would have never guessed this ID. Nice banner.

Lovely detail. Nice cascading effect.

A very pleasant surprise at that......you've enlightened us again. Just a gorgeous banner.

Here's the source photo, which will probably answer @lauriemorningglory's question without me spelling it out. Yes, the yellow specks are the tiny flowers, and the purple blobs are, I assume, the bud casings. The panicle, or whatever the correct botanical term for the bunch of blooms is, was high enough up that I couldn't get a close enough look to be absolutely sure. Later today I'll search out a photo of the fruit that forms, for those who have never had the pleasure of seeing this type of palm.

Superb banner Elizabeth!

The fruit forms as dark blue-black berrylike structures. I don't know if they are true berries. They fall off and leave behind dried stems with notches where the berries once were. Those broom-like bunches of dried stems stay on the tree for a long time, years in fact.

Wondering if those succulent looking berries were edible,
I found this cautionary article.

But makes a great banner.

Thanks for the link about fishtail palm toxicity, @EscondidoCal. I've only seen two specimens. Both were indoors, in conservatories. In both cases the blooms occurred far enough off the ground that they posed no temptation, and hence no danger, to adults, much less children or dogs. Cats, maybe.

"Cats, maybe."

And aardvarks.

Beautiful palm, Elizabeth, I've never seen anything like that one! A great banner choice!

Cal's link explains why I've never heard of palm berry pie!