Hi,

My palm leaves have been discoloring for a few weeks and now seem to be dead. I looked inside the crown and found these white flowers which are now decaying. What's happening ? I can't seem to find any disease in online search that could have caused this. Need some help !

Welcome to the site!
Moving your question to the Tropicals forum.

Your palm isn't dying its dead. It probably got crown rot. The white things are fungus. Some palms are susceptible to crown rot when water is allowed to collect in/on the crown (the place where the new fronds emerge from). This usually happens with sprinklers constantly hitting the palm too much

Thanks a lot for the prompt feedback.

The water was actually not collecting this year at all as it was a dry summer here in Houston and the sprinklers are way below the crown level. Any other potential cause ? It is very important for me to figure out as I plan to replace it with another palm but if it is something in the soil that I might have to do some treatment before putting in the replacement.

appreciate the help !

Its difficult for me to tell but what kind of palm was this?

This is how it looked when it started deteriorating.

I believe it was a pindo palm.

It's a Butia odorata (jelly palm, Pindo palm).
Theyare drought tolerant and very hardy. So growing in Houston shouldn't be a concern. They like sandy soil and grow best in zones 8 and 9
I'm not sure what happened to yours. Possibly the cold everyone had past Christmas affected it and it got fungus. It may have also developed a condition at the root level. But it's dead. It's hard d to tell from those rocks. Is it in the ground or in a container?

Thanks a lot Ginai960.

It is in ground and I do not see anything at the roots and you are probably right, early indications were after the freeze in December. (here is how it looks)

As a next step, can I go ahead and replace it with another tree or do I need to do some treatment before I put in a new plant ?

Any chance the chlorinated water from the pool may have been getting to it?

No leakage detected from the pool so I strongly doubt that pool water is the culprit here.

Oh my this was an old palm. You might want to have the soil there tested at your local USDA extension office but that's all I can think of. If the plant was already sick the cold we all experienced can't have done it any favors. I lost a Pygmy date in that freeze that had been there for 15 years