Palm Tree Pleasantries

A tall palm - the dead fronds have been cut from the trunk.

The southern tip of Texas is a warm temperate climate - almost tropical, and nothing makes one think of tropical more than palm trees. 

Now I don't know much about palm trees, but that's what the internet is for - right? I've learned that their scientific name is Arecaceae or Palmae, and that there are more than 2600 species of palm trees. I'm not surprised by that since right within our park here, there are tall ones, short ones, fuzzy ones, fan-like ones, and so on. I've learned that as long as the climate in tropical, sub-tropical, or warm-temperate palm trees are not fussy about their habitats. They can live in rain-forests, or deserts, and pretty much anything in between. They grow either as a solitary tree, or in clusters of 3 to 7.

A young palm makes for a great shrub. Note the feather style leaves.

This palm has never had old fronds trimmed away.

The leaves grow either like feathers or like a fan. The leaves are green and alive only at the top of the palm. As it grows, old fronds (leaves) turn brown and hang down covering the trunk. Many times these old fronds are cut away to make the tree more decorative.

Only the coconut palm has coconuts growing among the leaves. None of the palm trees I'm seeing around here are of that variety.  That's OK; nothing says vacation time better than a palm tree, and I don't need a coconut.

This palm tree has fan-like leaves.

Here's a close-up of a fan-style leaf.

The trunk of this palm tree looks like burlap.

Palm trees symbolize "vacation time" for me.