Palm, Livingstonea chinesa

This palm, Livingstonea chinesa, has been in a vase on the back veranda of the reception center at the Bosque for at least three years. The trunk is getting to be quite large, so in the next few months I have to make a decision as to whether it goes to the ground, or to a larger vase. The seeds of this palm were given to me by Carlos Eduardo Godinho, a friend who passed away one year ago, at the age of fifty. The matrix is an eighteen year old palm located at his widow's home here in Santarém. I don't remember how long it took for the seeds to germinate but it seems to me that it was less than one year. I have two survivors of the palm, this one and another one that is in the ground. The latter is still quite small, half the size of this one. Carlos had warned me that it was a very slow growing palm. Given that the soils at Bosque Santa Lúcia are very poor in nutrients and heavy in clays, I'm inclined to keeping this chinesa in a vase for as long as possible.