Pick out any tropical vacation postcard – or watch any hurricane advisory – and it’ll likely have a palm in the photo or video clip. The palm tree is not only the symbol of balmy climates, it’s also an ancient survivor that outlived whatever killed all the dinosaurs – petrified palm fossils have been uncovered as far north as Canada!
Palms are unique plants, typically having either single or multiple trunks supported by a thick, hairy mass of wiry roots produced at the base or “butt” of the trunks. Large palm leaves or “fronds” are usually either deeply divided fan-shaped (palmate) or feathery (pinnate) with many smaller leaflets on a long, single petiole stem. These leaves are produced one at a time from a single “bud” atop the trunk. Palm trunks are actually old leaf sheaths; with very few exceptions, if the top of a palm is cut off or killed by freezing temperature, that entire trunk will simply die. Very few palms sprout back from their roots.
Most of us think of palms as being tropical plants, which they are. However, many – including our own Southeastern native needle palm and palmetto, and the very cold-hardy Asian windmill palm – can tolerate hard freezes, at least for a few days at a time without protection. Even more are grown in containers that can be dragged indoors during winter.
In areas where it rarely freezes, and a bit beyond that, palms lend a tropical flair to nearly every imaginable landscape setting, from striking single specimen or naturalistic group accents, to street trees, hedges, barriers and comforting container beauties. Most palms grow best in sun, but most also tolerate quite a bit of shade, especially when young. This shade tolerance, coupled with the plants having a fairly small rootball, make palms very attractive as container plants both indoors and in restricted areas outdoors such as on patios or beside swimming pools.
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