Palms at a High Latitude in Florida
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PRINCIPES Palmsat a High Latitudein Florida DENTSMITH Photographs by the author unless otherwise noted. The palm collection here discussed is site of my palm plantings. This site is in no way remarkable except lbr the very f'avorable for its latitude of 29' l0' larger number of genera and species N., .azhich in Florida has always been under cultivation far north of the areas considered too hish for the cultivation generally considered warm enough for of the tenderer p-ul*r. Daytona Betrch their success. In f'act it is the northern- is 260 miles north of Miami and only most outdoor planting of any compar- 90 miles south of Jacksonville; it is in able number in Florida and-so the prob- the same approximate latitude as Galves- abilities say-in the world. But it is not ton, Texas and the southern tip of the to be compared with the large gardens, Mississippi River delta, and in Flolida, {or the grounds are not extensive enough as Ocala. But latitude is only one an'rong for such a comparison and the palms are many factors controlling climate; elevir- still, most of them, of insignificant di- tion above sea level, prevailing winrls mensions. Nor will it ever have the and marine influence are some of the grandeur of the great gardens, for when principal offsetting factors. the palms linally reach impressive pro- There was once a beginning to the portions there will be no good perspec- palm collecting here, and it has not been tives for lack of space, no open grass- long since. Together with my neighbor grown vistas and no landscaping care- Miss Margueriete Martin (who htrs {ully planned for pleasing effect. There served as Treasurer of The Palm Societv) will be, instead, a forest or jungle of I acquired seven years ago about four' palms of many kinds incongruously acres of wild land in a section of the growing together in a way never dup.[i- Peninsula then sparsely inhabitecl cated in nature, though since urbanized; and subsequent- This planting, which because of its ly we each built a house. But at first remoteness from the tropics must still the land was so overgrown with strrv be considered in the experimental stage, palmetlocs, cabbage pilms, sand live- is at Davtona Beach. Florida on a nar- oaks, sand pines and tangled vines that "the row strip of land locally known as it was impenetrable till paths had beerr Peninsula," itself tightly embraced by cut. At least 200 scrawny trees had to the open Atlantic on the east and by be removed and some 500 saw palmet- the tidal Halifax River on the west. toes had to be srubbed out by hancl, These bodies of salt water not only tem- subterranean trunks and all, to rnrke per the air of the Peninsula but actually room for other plants; but even then a make its winter climate a different one good half of the land was and still is tr from that of the immediate mainland. half-open woodland mostly of sand live- In winter the minimum temperatures oaks (Quercus geminata Small). are often 5 to 10 degrees higher on the More than half of the oalms here Peninsula than at the principal lVeather have been planted under the oaks. Tlre Bureau station located at the mainland shade-loving kinds reap the benefits airport a scant three miles distant. A both of shade and cold protection; the maximum difference of 17" F. in minima sun-lovers thrive in shade when youllg, has been observed by me on instru- but the overhanging branches must be ments installed by Weather Bureau of- removed as the palm tops approrrch ficials for a Cooperative Station at the them. Matted oak leaves and nine r04 PRINCIPES Daytona Beach News-Journal Photo Tall slend,erspecimen l's ArchontophoenixAlexandrae acqttired fr. Reasoner,Braden- iott, planted, lr.ere1953. Young royal palnt, irt,Itackgroutd fr. Pampas, Cocoa, 1954. 105 PRINCIPES needles maintain the acidity of the soil The month of Janutrrv,1956 providect composed oI deep fine-grained sand a rather severetest, for it was the coldest with no humus visible in it below the January since 1940 when the entire depth of 16 inches. It contains no shell, state, minus the Keys, was frozen, The "sweeteners," marl, limerock or other palms here endured in January, 1956 and the water table is too far below the twelve mornings on which the mercury surface to benefit shallow-rooting palms; dipped into the 30's and ten other morn- but there is a second soil type here and ings into the 40's; they also endured a hieh water table on about an acre of brief liosts on two mornings when the low land beside the river where the soil is a mixture of poor sand and shell in al- most equal am6unts. The palms known to have a preference for one or the other of the two kinds of soil are planted ac- cordingly. (Most palms will thrive, or at least live, in a wide range of differ- "specialists" ent soils, but some are that fail to adapt themselves outside their' restricted element). The first palms were planted here in 1950, of the kinds already common in this part of Florida. Gradually otliers were grown lrom seed or obtained as either large or small plants. The num- ber of species already or soon to be planted now approaches the 200 mark, which is something over 100 short of the 300-goal that might be attained by dint of enough persistence and by good luck. A ferv of the planted palms are adults but most are still in the juvenile stage. Tropical palms are tender to cold in direct ratio to their age and height, the Aiphanes caryotaefolia, fr. Betty Chalk, older and taller ones sulfering less cold Miami, pld. 1952. Fast grouer, but sub- injury in proportion to theii develop- iect to leaf-burn, fr. cold uinter winds. ment of toughened tissues; also in pro- portion to their height because the foli- temoerature reached a minimum of age is the tenderest part of the palm 30'-F. Nevertheless most were unaf- and the higher it is elevated above the fected and none was severely injured; ground, the less it is exposed to lrost several kinds suf1ered leaf damage alcl formation and the colder layers of air were made to look quite shabby, notablv nearer lhe ground levcl. Despite this Cocos nucifera, Aiphanes caryotaefolia, demonstrable f'act, the small and even Adonidia Merrillii, Guili,elma Gasipaes. minrlte size of some of the nalms here Others displayed an altogether unex- has not yet resulted in the winter-killing oected tolerance of both liost and thc: ol any; moreover, not one palm speci- protracted cold, as for example one 7- men, big or little, has been lost here to year-old specimen oI Latania borbonica cold damage thus far. Nor are the plants which was totally uninjured then or protected by artilicial heat or other later by actual and visible white frost means. on its leaves. Oddly enough this prilm 106 PRINCIPES "ii, . " Some of the iuaenile Ttalms. Upper l.eft: Hexopetion mexicanum, fr. U.S.P.I. Gdn', '52. '56, Coconut Grooe, pld. Lower left: Arengapinnata, Reasoner, shouing method ol trenchi'ng before back-filling uith nTanure to enlarge feeding-watering area 7 yr. ,fiter plantin,g. Top right: Arikwl'roba schizophylla,Reasoner, pld.'53. Middle right: "Rageg" '53, '54. Ptychospermasp. (Dr. Fairchild's palm), FTG distrib. pld. Bottom rlghf; Dictvospermaalbum, fr. Pampas,Cocoa, pld.'54. r07 PRINCIPES i a- H -Ea.-Y q qF ! (f 9 h./L 3^ f .i Z d*. 'iF ^ u -a% o lbf, F ".Xo .; 9 ;'; * ;._::i {',!c 1-.:'i. :9c '6'd 3 {:U s Gi. .*fu v!tr o-5: - .:\ = uto :X ksF :=y e \-! d::- Y3= a"l V : s< 9a\ 1;: i >\J i o <.i ^= =!4 v.i: :t= ): \ NV h.,i i 108 PRINCIPES and all of the others' from the Mascar- Moreover, of several hundred Palm ene Islands that have been tried here speciessupposed to be extremely tender, seem to be perfectly able to withstand one would be hard put to name even the rigors of this climate, oia., species ten with palmate leaves. The point of of Latania, Mascarena and Dictyosper- all this is not to show that the plumose ma, so that there is room for some oP- palms are tender, for some of them are tirnism for the two other genera, Lardy; it is to show that the palmate- palms with very minor ex- Acanthophoenix and Hyophorbe. On lhe leaved are, other hand, palms lrom the Seychelles ceptions',le*"rtabty hardy'to cold no Islands in the same Indian Ocean with matter their place of origin. "hardy" tl-re Mascarenes,are definitely tenderer, The term aPPlied to Palms as plants of the monotypic genera Stev- means that, for the plant family, they ensonia and Lodoicea-accounted for, are relativelv hardV but not in the usual possibly, by the closer proximity of the senseapplied to northern plants. And it Seychellesto the equator. a Latania proves hardy here, this does not constitute proof that it would be one seemsto have made the dis- No hardy in Ocala or Jacksonville. It seems covery that the palmate or fan-leaved improbable that manY of the Palms palrns are hardier, in the main, than the growing here-very likely more than plnrnot" or feather-leaved Palms; or if f,aH-could be successfully cultivated on the discovery has been made not once the mainland at a distance of onlY a but a dozen times, there has been no mile or two from this location, the as- accornpanying publicity and no wide sumption arising trom the fact that the recognition of it.