PalmScapes: The Thai Mountain Fishtail Palm

As I Wander...

Welcome!

Living in tropical Malaysia, we tend to take the hot humid weather, thundery rainstorms and the spectrum of wild evergreen plants as a given.

Recently, I noticed more exotic plants making its way into landscaped home gardens, recreational parks, frontages of shopping malls and

commercial buildings.

Along kerb sides of residential streets and busy motorways, palms, trees and flowering plants make pleasant and interesting fringes.

This is a record of the various species "as I see it" for I am in awe of palms. Hence, my premise for this blog is that the global garden,

i.e. every physical garden (tended or untended), becomes a part of my, simply said, cyber palm garden. ;-)

Please feel free to share your thoughts or comments.

Thank you for visiting!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Thai Mountain Fishtail Palm

Botanical Name : Caryota gigas

This attractive row of the Mountain Fishtail palm stands attentively along the busy highway across the road from the Kelana Jaya LRT station.

looking out from the LRT station platform

A native of the Himalayas, the Mountain Fishtail is also known as the Black Fishtail Palm. Its leaflets are different to the other fishtail species in that its leaflets are rounded instead of pointy bat shaped.

These pinnate leaflets are slightly wavy and come in a fern-like arrangement. It is definitely stunning to view from afar and quite awesome when one stands beneath its wide girth. The firm leaflets appear to carry several green tones.

The dark solitary trunk carries prominent rings from the cleaning of old leaf fronds.

While they do like a sunny well drained position, these palms are still considered rather slow growing when compared with other caryota sp. In its natural habitat may reach heights of 20m while its leafy fronds may extend up to 2m wide.

This row of palms appear quite young and thus far, no sign of inflorescence nor fruits as yet.