Mediterranean Gardens
Landscaping with palm trees, part 1.
Roald Goorman
There is no plant that evokes more the feel of warmer tropical climes than the palm tree, with
the Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) being the epitome. Lamentably, this palm cannot be grown
here on the Costa Blanca, as our winters are too cool for the tree to thrive, it needs 16 + degrees
centigrade as a minimum to survive. However there are many other palm species that look just as
tropical as the coconut palm, that do very well for us. Ubiquitous and impossible to miss are the
Washingtonia palms (Washingtonia robusta), Date palms (Phoenix dactilifera) and Canary date
palms (Phoenix canariensis).
The latter two of which unfortunately falls victim quite often to the red palm weevil that is wiping out
huge amounts of especially the Canary dates, for which it has an obvious preference. We can grow
successfully more than 100 species of palms on the Costa Blanca, more inland cooler gardens
perhaps a few less, but with still over 50 suitable palm species there remains enough to choose
from! Here is a small introduction to palms and their differences.
Nikau
palm
European fan palm
There are approximately 2600 palm species in the world,
all occurring in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate
climates. The northernmost species is our native European
fan palm (Chamaerops humilis), the southernmost species
is the Nikau palm (Rophalostylis sapida) from New
Zealand. Both species can be grown here, the first needing
full sun and the latter shaded locations.
Palms can roughly be divided in two groups, the pinnate
(feather) palms and the palmate (fan) palms. Coconut
palms and Date palms are pinnate palms, whereas
Washingtonias are palmate palms.
In pinnate leaves the leaflets are arranged
perpendicular along a Date palm
midrib, like a feather.
A variation on the
pinnate theme is
bipinnate, in which the
leaflets themselves
are divided in smaller
leaflets, the Fishtail
Coconut palm
palm (Caryota sp.)
These are both Pinnate Palms
being an example.
Caryota gigas,
a bipinnate palm
In palmate leaves the leaflets all sprout from the same central point
outwards, in some species these leaflets remain more attached almost up
to the tips (young specimens of Livistona chinensis) whereas in others they are separate from the
base upwards (Raphis excelsa)
with the Washingtonia being an
Livistona chinensis
intermediate form. Costapalmate is
a variation on the palmate theme,
the palm fronds still resemble a
hand, but the leaflets do not sprout
from a central point but are divided
Raphis leaf
along a short midrib (Sabal sp.)
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