Fri December 21, 2012 The Not-So-Little Palm Tree That Couldn't
This is the sad story of a very tall tree. "This one right
here," says Patrick Griffith, slapping his hand on a rough,
grayish trunk, "coccothrinax barbadensis." Griffith is executive
director at the Montgomery Botanical Center, a 120-acre
horticultural haven less than two miles from the more famous –
yet 50 percent smaller – Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. If
trees had supermodels, the coccothrinax barbadensis that
Griffith is staring up at would be one. "It's very tall and
thin," he notes. But tall and thin is dime a dozen in South
Florida. This particular palm tree has it, the quality that
would make you want to send a postcard of it to make your
Midwestern family jealous. Unscientifically known as a Barbados
silver palm, this one shoots straight up in the air the height
of five basketball hoops, blows through a dense tree canopy and
explodes above into a green and silver palm frond firework.
"It’s the biggest one in Florida," Griffith adds