The Hardy Palms | Transfer & On Hold

Hmm...spied a few forlorn and displaced palms at the far end of a shopping mall compound.  The blistering afternoon sun unleashed its power on these helpless plants leaning on a wall. But what on earth are these dug outs doing out there. It's hard to imagine... more like waiting to be baked ?

lean on me

There was a guy working nearby so I thought best to ask him.  He just pointed to the direction inside the mall.  It then clicked that there were palms exhibited inside as part of the Ramadhan festival.  But that's been nearly a month since the exhibits were first put up.

Were these excess to requirements or were they meant for replacements as the earlier palm exhibits had since shown signs of distress and turned yellow, spectacularly wilting in high end shopping territory.

strait-jacket

Considering it's only another couple of days to the festival date, I'm not sure if these will eventually grace the surrounds in the cooler air-conditioned arena or suffer the consequences of neglect. 

The crown and small root ball all bundled up in polythene for easy removal and transportation.

mass relocation

These two species, the coconut (cocos nucifera) and the betel nut (areca catechu) palms happen to be our most dynamic yet commonly exuberant species.  Now, hardy isn't a word not associated with these types of palms. So, survive I hope they do...

Palmstory | Wherever I lay...

The beauty about equatorial regions, is that plants propagate quickly and abundantly with ease.

Even if one does not intend to have a particular plant or type of grass, they're bound to land in your garden if the species exist in neighbourhood surrounds, whether one likes it or not. The wind, the birds, hired help with their lawnmowers, all play their role in nature's mystic cycle of life...

The maintenance bit to rid the undesired species then becomes the bane of the gardener. Precious time that could be spent on nuturing, giving TLC to desired species gave way to time spent getting rid of the unwanted. Urrgh!

Here's some palm seeds which defy the odds. Not only to survive, but thrive in the most unlikely places with little care nor maintenance.  

More like a tropical palm's take on Paul Young's song, "Wherever I lay my Hat, that's my home", here are my surprise finds...

Whilst not too clearly seen in the centre of this pic -  a palm seedling (Areca sp.) amongst fern + weeds found themselves stranded in high places, a pitcher plant (Nepenthes) fountain in the city centre.

A whole bunch of Lady Palm (Raphis excelsa) seedlings survive on construction debris in the city

 I'm a jail palm, get me out of here!

Reaching out...  safe and sound, a well protected palm seedling (Areca sp.) growing in a 2ft deep 1ft wide and very long drain (cell?) outside a shopping mall carpark in Kota Damasara.

Nightscenes | Spotlight on Palms

The day is done and night comes alive. 

Do trees go to sleep?  Maybe they do now that they take a break from photosynthesizing.

However, man has other plans.  They want to enhance the exterior of their homes or buildings.  They wish to stand out from dark, ominous surrounds.  Shadows cast by trees and plants would draw passers-by attention and look interesting.  Therefore, they installed the lighting to make artificial day.  Noo! That's not true...

A correct amount of light is required to throw up an equally mesmerizing ambiance by accentuating parts of the palms.  The options to enhance the silhouette of trees, especially palm trees, at night are quite a few and

is definitely an art form.

                       malayan green coconut palm

                                                                                                              bismarkia nobilis

                        borassus flabellifer

                                                                                                   areca catechu

Whilst researching for this blog awhile ago, found an interesting site which offers professional lighting capacity advice for palms by species.  Then, I'd just kept it aside for future use.  If ever anyone is in need of such technical information, they may wish to visit

http://palm_doctor.homestead.com/palm14.html

The Areca Nut Palm

Botanical Name : Areca catechu

And now, for the real thing...

A lovely mid sized graceful tall straight and slender palm originating from South-east Asia in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines, though the name could be a combination of both Malay and India origins. Also known as the Pinang and erroneously called the Betel Nut tree because the areca nuts are commonly chewed together with the vine leaves of the betel plant.

The lush deep green crown of leaves are long, pinnate and quite crowded at the top. Therefore, popular landscape and gardening specimens for both indoors and out.  One can find them almost everywhere,
modern shopping malls to nostalgic surrounds of quaint kampong (village) thatched huts.

Commercially, it's grown as a seed crop as these seeds containing alkaloids viz. arecaine and arecoline, that when chewed, are intoxicating and also additive. So, who needs the head or bottle shops, huh?

The inflorescence with oval drupes were unfortunately out of reach by my simple, low range lens.  Nevertheless, the fallen ones, fresh and dried would be representative enough, orange gold, the size of hen eggs. The 'sun dried' ones now exposing their weather worn fibrous mesocarp.

                                                  dried areca nut slices sold by street vendor

And depending on the cultures, the fruit extracts or compounds could be used for a wide range of treatments from parasitic infections to headaches, fever and rheumatism.

Should also be great garden companion plants for homeopathy enthusiasts, I would think.