Palm trees
These photographs are why I decided to do palm trees. On my walk I pass through this quiet little court, where the houses are pretty small and the gardens even smaller - and yet there is this particular house which is surrounded by palm trees. I don't know whether they are all the same kind, or whether the person who planted them just planted as many different kinds as he could. But there must be at least a dozen, maybe more because I couldn't quite see the back (where there are more). This is just the few yards in front of his house - and in typically suburban fashion there is the ute and the mini caravan too.
On my walk I also pass this house in another quiet court - not quite as much a palm tree lover but nevertheless they are pretty dominant. And another ute.
And finally there is the grander house in the grander court (they have views of the distant hills) where the palm trees have been used in the same way that the Italians use those pencil pines by their front doors. I think there is some symbolism in its use but a quick search did not come up with the answer.
Anyway - it's interesting that in suburbia some people like to have palm trees.
Why? Well I think to the modern eye palm trees are symbolic of all kinds of things, mostly associated with tropical island paradises and the estates and hotels of the mega rich. Say the words 'tropical paradise' and you immediately picture palm trees don't you? Ditto for 'oasis'. There's something opulent about them, which probably goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Tropical islands are full of them - leading to my young teenage son saying that 'when you've seen one tropical island you've seen them all!' Deeply insulting to individual islanders I'm sure, but with a slight grain of truth as to the vegetation, for it is what typifies tropical islands for us. Which leads to most seaside resorts having palm trees lining their promenades - even in England. I fondly remember seeing them in Torquay in Devon - and I see they are still there. Devon is the warmest part of England, but still it's hardly tropical. But then neither is our local mega shopping centre Doncaster Shopping Town which is also lined with palm trees. But I guess it makes those places seem exotic - like the Eltham houses.
“I suddenly realized I was in California. Warm, palmy air - air you can kiss - and palms.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road
The French painter Raoul Dufy painted a picture that he subtitled 'a homage to Paul Gaugin', and it was of palm fronds - such was the association of Gauguin with the tropics, and hence of palm trees.
And Gauguin himself painted many palm trees, as did David Hockney who claimed that people in California hadn't really noticed them until he painted them. Which is a bit egoistic. But the world-famous A Bigger Splash certainly somehow sums up Californian life - of a certain type of course - the rich and famous? And somehow sterile, not life-enhancing as palm trees truly are.
"The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind." Carl Hiaasen
But enough of art and random ramblings and on to food.
There are over 2,500 species of palm trees - or arecaceae to give them their correct botanical name. And many of them provide food - well not just food, some of them provide just about everything - food, housing, shelter, fuel, clothing, implements, tools, furniture, etc. Some examples are coconuts, dates, rattan, acai, betel, sago, oil palms and the many that provide hearts of palm. All of them warrant individual posts but in general they are vital to people who live in tropical coastlands and in the desert.
"One could go as far as to say that, had the date palm not existed, the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the "old" world would have been much more restricted. " W. H. Barreveld
The ancient Mesopotamians are credited with being the first users and cultivators - which takes us back to the earliest civilisations. Not only did they eat the dates, which were easily transportable too, but they also provided shelter from the heat and the wind, the leaves could be woven, the wood could be burnt or used to build .... Ditto for coconut which is even more versatile. Coconut is a bit ubiquitous at the moment - not just for the flesh of the nut, but the oil and the milk too. And then you can wrap things in the leaves to cook them in the ground with hot coals.
When we visited Raratonga in the Cook Islands many, many years ago they had just experienced a hurricane and there were coconuts everywhere. There were still a few on the trees though and they showed us how they shinned up the tree to collect them and then how to get the milk out of them.
Coconuts themselves, the nuts that is - the largest seed there is - can float on water, because of the fibrous coir in between the outer shell and the inside flesh - thus spreading themselves around the world. The coir or is made into rough matting, ropes and other similar things. The copra which is the dried husk is where coconut oil comes from.
And a final mention of palm oil. Not a good thing. Well it would be a good thing if it wasn't so economically important and therefore leads to the destruction of native forests. An environmental disaster in fact, even though some of the oil is being used instead of older fuels.
So palm trees - so much more than a vision of paradise. I don't think I have really said anything interesting or meaningful here, Indeed I see, on rereading this, that I have been very superficial, but I do hope you might ponder on them sometime. They are some of our oldest and most useful, even vital plants - so much more than decoration.
