What are palm trees? What types of palm trees grow on our Black Sea coast? Is it possible to grow them at home? Which of them can be grown independently from seeds? We will try to answer these questions. For a start - general information.
The leaves of palm trees are characterized by a feathery and fan type. Leaves on petioles are arranged spirally. Flowers are unisexual or bisexual. Fruits - drupes or nuts.
Palms grown at home from seeds are in a rosette state for a long time, and only after the rosette reaches the required diameter does the stem grow in height. This feature makes it possible to contain young, grown from palm seeds in room conditions. The following types of palm trees are most suitable for this: Canarian date, capitate butia, palmetto saber, low chambers (squat), niteniferous Washington, Fortune trachicarpus.
Canary date
Latin name - Phoenix canariensis Chahand. This plant is dioecious, evergreen. It develops like a tree, but looks more like a large wide bush 10-20 m tall, with a massive, unbranched, false trunk, covered with the bases of old leaves.
In open ground on the Black Sea coast, the palm reaches a height of 12-15 m. The leaves are large, up to 4 m. There are sharp needle-shaped spines along the edges of the leaf petiole.
This palm tree blooms in the summer-autumn period. Male inflorescences up to 2 m long, female inflorescences shorter. The fruit is ovoid, yellowish brown, 2.5 cm long, with coarse flesh, slightly edible. Propagated by seeds.
Edible date
Canarian dates should not be confused with edible palm dates (Phoenix dactylifera). Unfortunately, seeds extracted from the fruits of edible dates do not germinate well - after all, before the dates reach the consumer, they significantly lose their germination capacity. In addition, the temperature necessary for germination, 20-25 ° C, can only be maintained in greenhouses and greenhouses.
The city of Basra in southern Iraq is considered the world capital of edible dates. 420 varieties of this species are concentrated here. The Arabian wisdom says that “the palm should stand in the water with its base, and drown with the top in the hot rays of the sun.”
Date palmate - dioecious plant. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks hung several male panicles inside the crowns, sprinkling pollen, because without artificial insemination female specimens were without fruit.
Cape butia
The Latin name is Butia capitata. This type of palm tree is native to Brazil. It grows in mountainous areas on sandy soils. The trunk of the butia has a characteristic capitate thickening at the base, gradually tapering upward.
The appearance of new leaves begins in April and continues until the end of September. During the growing season from 4 to 9 leaves are formed, and each lives up to 7 years.
The palm tree is beautiful with its openwork crown, lush inflorescences and fruits.
In the open ground of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, butium enters flowering and fruiting from 10-12 years of age. Indoor rarely blooms.
At the butia, the seed is roundly oblong, pointed at the ends, up to 20 mm long and 10 mm wide, with three distinct sutures. In the lower part there are three rounded pores, covered with loose cork tissue - this is the place where the embryo emerges.
Seeds contain about 60% liquid coconut oil. The fruits of butia are used in food raw and for the manufacture of jams and liquors.
Before germinating the butia seeds, it is recommended that they be stratified for a long time in wet sand or peat. Mechanical stratification is possible - sawing of seed shells or careful destruction of cork tissue with a sharp metal object.
Freshly picked seeds germinate after stratification for 35-45 days. In some cases, the process may take up to 24 months.
To accelerate the germination time, it is recommended to gently split the hard shell of the seed and sow the released kernels into the soil, after soaking them for 24 hours in water. At the same time, the appearance of seedlings is reduced by half.
Butia capitate is frost-resistant - it withstands temperature drops to -10 ° C. Drought resistant. It grows well on sandy soils.
Indoor butia requires regular watering, and in summer the plant needs to be fed with flower fertilizers once every two weeks. For it should use the soil mixture for palm trees, sold in stores.
Sabal Palmetto
This type of palm tree (lat. Sabal palmetto) comes from North America. Its single trunk in open ground reaches a height of 20 m. Fan leaves.
Inflorescences up to 2 m long. The fruit is a black spherical drupe.
On the Black Sea coast, palmetto sabal blooms and produces viable seeds, which usually germinate within four months.
Stratification at a temperature of 35 ° (about one month) reduces the germination time. Soaking in hot water (approximately 90 ° C), and especially removing the lid above the embryo, also accelerates seed germination. At home, young, not yet opened, leaves are used as food for vegetables, they are called "palm cabbage!"
Chamerops squat
The botanical name for this species of palm is Chamaerops humilis. Came to Europe from Africa. It has been cultivated in greenhouses for over 300 years. This is a bushy palm with several trunks 2-3 m high, growing from a common base. In the Sochi arboretum of the Research Institute of Urban Ecology there are specimens with 7-10 or more trunks in the bush.
The lateral shoots of the chameroops are not recommended to be separated, since they are not suitable for vegetative propagation.
Palm tree grows slowly. During the summer, forms up to 7 leaves, which usually live 7 years. It blooms in May and June. The fruit is a drupe, ripens in November-December.
The palm is drought-resistant, undemanding to the soil. Propagated by seeds.
Seeds in the pulp of the fetus do not germinate. After removing the flesh sprout for 2 months at room temperature. Removing the lid causes accelerated seed germination in 11 days.
Washingtonia filamentous or filamentous
The Latin name is Washingtonia filifera. She hails from the southwest of North America. This is a very beautiful fan palm. The trunk in the homeland reaches a height of 30 m. Fan leaves with delicate delicate threads hanging between leaf segments.
Complex inflorescences. The flowers are bisexual with a strong odor. The fruit is an undetected drupe.
It blooms and bears fruit abundantly on the Black Sea coast, the fruits ripen in December. This is one of the fastest growing palm trees.
Easily propagated by seeds. Germination of 80-90%. At a temperature of 35 ° C in greenhouse conditions, seedlings appear on the seventh day. Under normal conditions - within a month.
This type of palm tree will look good in spacious rooms - halls, offices, greenhouses. Care is simple, but there is one feature - in winter it will feel more comfortable in cool conditions. If you can’t maintain the temperature in the room no higher than 20 ° C (preferably 15-18 ° C), then the dishes with the plant should be kept in a pan with water and sprayed daily. At high room temperatures and dry air, it can drop leaves.
Seeds remain viable for up to 5 years.
Trachicarpus Fortune
This type of palm tree (lat. Trachycarpus fortunei) grows up to 10 m at home, in China, Burma, Japan. At the top of the trunk forms a bunch of fan-shaped leaves, petioles of which reach a length of 0.5 to 1.5 m. Flowers are unisexual, dioecious. , collected in large paniculate inflorescences. The fruit is a drupe. Fruits abundantly from 20 years. It blooms in May, the fruits ripen in December and January.
This is the most frost-resistant of all fan palm trees.
It is undemanding to the soil. Easily propagated by seeds. Seeds germinate within a month.
Indoor young plants are recommended to be transshipped into larger pots once a year. This accelerates their growth and makes it possible to remove rotten and dried parts of the root. All transplantation work must be carried out in the spring, at the beginning of the growing season.
Trachicarpus Fortune tolerates transplantation well in adulthood.
In many places of the Black Sea coast it gives abundant self-seeding and runs wild.