Palm trees seem to be everywhere. And I don't just refer to Singapore. There were varieties of palm-like trees in NZ. We call them Nikau. I recall seeing palm trees growing on a beach in Sweden (they were not natural inhabitants of said beach but they were hanging in there).
There are palm trees in UK - again not naturally occuring, but having been introduced they are making a good go of it. I did a volunteer gardening stint for a Ronald Macdonald House in London last spring and spent an hour pulling up self-seeded palms. Like hair in a cat's back they were.
Palms are both delicate and tough. You have no doubt seen tv footage of them streaming and straining in a hurricane (usually a scene from southern USA, or a Pacific Island). Some provide food (like dates and coconuts) and there are many cultures in which they are valuable building materials.
In the Pacific lessons are being learned about traditional buildings being quicker and easier to restore and replace after cyclone damage than concrete and sheet iron ones - and traditional components being less dangerous in a cyclone than sheets of corrugated iron whirling around.
Palm oil is an important (and controversial) ingredient in food, soap and candles.
Actually I didn't come here to extoll palm trees I had simply remarked to myself while looking down from my elevated window that in the lightest of breezes, too light to lift the fronds, palm trees sort of shimmer. The frondlets (ok not a word but I can't be bothered going all science on my observation) - the frondlets just riffle like so many butterflies shaking out their wings.
That's it. That's all the observation I made.
There is a palm tree in a pot on the pool deck.
My grandmother had a small potted palm indoors - chamaedorea elegans. Why do I even remember that plant name? The one on the pool deck looks like a bigger version of my grandmothers one.
I recall seeing flat palm trees and three cornered palms in the Caribbean. The flat ones look like a Chinese fan on a long handle (do an image search 'flat palm tree' in a popular browser to see what I mean).
To those of us who grew up with oaks and pine trees, palms in any form will always seem exotic; something in a postcard from a beach in a hot place.
Palm trees are pretty But they do become invasive in some situations.
ReplyDeleteThey do conjure images of tropical islands and warm sandy beaches
Or camels and sandy oases.
DeleteThey do indeed seem exotic to those of us up here in cooler climes. I was surprised when we moved here thirty years ago to see so many "Manx" palms growing all over the island. They are actually a NZ species, Cordyline Australis, which seem to thrive here, although they do make quite a mess everywhere.
ReplyDeleteHa ha - we call those cabbage trees. We don't think of them as a palm at all. The flowers smell nice.
DeleteFlat palm trees do indeed look like fans. Thank you for initiating a pleasant trawl through various sites.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many 100s of varieties of palm there are.
DeletePalm trees here were drying up and dying a few years ago because of some disease from Egypt but I notice the ones around here have recovered and look healthy.
ReplyDeleteOur neighbours have a couple. They do make a mess as JC says and they need regular trimming
I was going to mention the plague on palm trees in Greece. Someone had explained how the country had lost most of its 'grandees' a couple of decades ago. Apparently new disease resistant varieties had to be planted. It was an insect or something wasn't it?
DeleteI have noticed them in Torquay on the English Riviera.
ReplyDeleteThere a quite a few types that thrive in England - especially in Cornwall.
DeleteMy mother was born here where I live now and there is nothing but palm trees everywhere you look all the different kinds just about any kind including the flat ones. Until the day she died her favorite sound was the wind moving the fronds whether it be a light Breeze that made it go clack or one that made it really make noise they even make a whistling noise and how wind. She loved all things palms and so do I. I really enjoyed your post today had no idea they grew in London or other places in the cold weather
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