Palms To Plant

Feel tropical? Hand yourself a palm in San Antonio

Do you like palm trees? Save yourself lots of trouble from cold weather by selecting the species that can tolerate our frequent cold spells.

A major factor in palm tree selection is their cold tolerance. Select a palm that has a good chance to survive our frequent cold spells.

To plant a palm, you select a sunny location. Palms are sold with a minimal root system so the planting process involves digging a hole to a depth of the root ball propping them in place until the roots can move into the soil.

Water the palm at planting and every two weeks after planting during the first summer but never allow a soggy situation. Palms are susceptible of rotting at the base if the soil does not dry out between watering.

To gather information for this article, I quizzed two palm tree experts, Steven Siebert and Paul Cox . Siebert is a palm hobbyist and Cox was assistant superintendent at the Botanical Gardens for many years. He is also co-author of “Texas Trees: A Friendly Guide.” Here are the choices for the best palms for San Antonio.

The best adapted palm for use in the San Antonio area appears to be the Texas Sabal (Sabal Mexicana). It is native to the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas and grows south into Mexico.

It reaches 40 feet tall with bluish leaves and a moderate growth rate. The Texas Sabal is cold hardy to the lower teens. As far as we have observed, the species was not injured by cold in either of our last two winters.

The common Washingtonia mexicana (Mexican fan palm) is one to avoid unless you believe we won't have winter temperatures below 20 degrees again. It is a fast-growing tall palm (in some places, it can get to be 100 feet) that is readily available in the market. Save yourself the grief and pick a more cold-hardy selection such as Texas Sabal or California fan palm.

The best choice for a thin-trunked upright palm is probably the California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera). It grows relatively fast to 35 feet tall and is a common tall palm in San Antonio. California fan palm is cold tolerant to the low teens.

It is the palm with the brown leaves that fall along the trunk to form a skirt or “petticoat.”

California fan palm is readily available and inexpensive in the San Antonio area. Avoid its cousin, Washingtonia mexicana (Mexican fan palm), which is also available. It is probably the most common tall palm (to 100 feet) in the city, but it also suffers considerable damage in winters like we have just experienced. It does not have the cold tolerance necessary to survive San Antonio winters. Expect some damage at 23 degrees.

Tropical Plant Fats: Coconut Oil, Part I | Health for life, Health ...

Traditional Uses for Coconut

Coconut palms are used for a variety of purposes throughout the tropics. Here are a few quotes from the book Polynesia in Early Historic Times:

Most palms begin to produce nuts about five years after germination and continue to yield them for forty to sixty years at a continuous (i.e., nonseasonal) rate, producing about fifty nuts a year. The immature nut contains a tangy liquid that in time transforms into a layer of hard, white flesh on the inner surface of the shell and, somewhat later, a spongy mass of embryo in the nut’s cavity. The liquid of the immature nut was often drunk, and the spongy embryo of the mature nut often eaten, raw or cooked, but most nuts used for food were harvested after the meat had been deposited and before the embryo had begun to form…

After the nut had been split, the most common method of extracting its hardened flesh was by scraping it out of the shell with a saw-toothed tool of wood, shell, or stone, usually lashed to a three-footed stand. The shredded meat was then eaten either raw or mixed with some starchy food and then cooked, or had its oily cream extracted, by some form of squeezing, for cooking with other foods or for cosmetic or medical uses…

Those Polynesians fortunate enough to have coconut palms utilized their components not only for drink and food– in some places the most important, indeed life-supporting food– but also for building-frames, thatch, screens, caulking material, containers, matting, cordage, weapons, armor, cosmetics, medicine, etc.

Mainstream Ire

Coconut fat is roughly 90 percent saturated, making it one of the most highly saturated fats on the planet. For this reason, it has been the subject of grave pronouncements by health authorities over the course of the last half century, resulting in its near elimination from the industrial food system. If the hypothesis that saturated fat causes heart disease and other health problems is correct, eating coconut oil regularly should tuck us in for a very long nap.

Coconut Eaters

As the Polynesians spread throughout the Eastern Pacific islands, they encountered shallow coral atolls that were not able to sustain their traditional starchy staples, taro, yams and breadfruit. Due to its extreme tolerance for poor, salty soils, the coconut palm was nearly the only food crop that would grow on these islands*. Therefore, their inhabitants lived almost exclusively on coconut and seafood for hundreds of years.

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The standard cyclopedia of horticulture, a discussion for the amateur, and the professional and commercial grower, of the kinds, characteristics and methods of cultivation of the species of plants grown in the regions of the United States and Canada for ornament, for fancy, for fruit and for vegetables; with keys to the natural families and genera, descriptions of the horticultural capabilities of the states and provinces and dependent islands, and sketches of eminent horticulturists

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