The yellowing usually advances from the older to the younger fronds with the spear leaf being the last to turn yellow. Once the spear leaf shows symptoms, the crown dies, the top of the tree falls away, and only a topless trunk remains. The remaining susceptible palms fall into the second symptom category, browning or drying out of fronds. The first two symptom stages in these palms are also similar to those in LY-infected coconut palms. Frond discoloration is not as dramatic or easily detected in the early stages as in coconut or pritchardia palms.
Browning gradually extends to the entire frond giving it a dried out appearance.
Older leaves tend to break easily at the junction of the leaf-base and midrib and younger fronds tend to break within the lower region of the pinnae. Unopened inflorescences may have a distorted or twisted appearance. Death of the bud follows and the entire top falls away leaving a bare trunk. The University of Florida Agricultural Research and Education Center in Ft. Lauderdale has beeen conducting LY research since 1972.