The palm family consists of over 4,000 different kinds of tropical plants, including trees, shrubs and vines. In Florida, the climate enables a number of palm trees to grow. These trees are native to certain parts of the state but people have successfully transplanted and grown these trees across Florida. While at first glance all palm trees may appear similar, you can identify individual species of palms.
Instructions
1. Look at the height, girth and color of the trunk. The Florida royal palm can reach as high as 100 feet and the trunk can reach 2 feet across. The color of a royal palm's trunk resembles that of concrete. It is a light gray shade.
The Florida thatch palm has a slender trunk, only 4 to 8 inches in diameter, even though the tree may exceed 30 feet in height.
2. Examine the leaves.
The buccaneer palm tree has feather-like leaves between 5 and 6 feet long with darkish green-yellow hues on top. The bottom of the buccaneer palm leaf is much paler than the top and takes on a silver tint.
The Florida thatch palm has fan-shaped leaves with stems around 4 feet. The leaves radiate from a middle point. The leaf consists of a number of leaflets jutting out from the center and is approximately 2 to 3 feet wide.
Palmetto palms have what botanists describe as "costate," meaning there are multiple leaves growing off a single stem, but not in the way that species such as hickory and walnut do. Palmettos have long curved stems, with types like the cabbage palmetto possessing 6- to 7-foot-long stems.
3. Consider which region of Florida a palm tree grows in. The cabbage palmetto thrives throughout the state while the Florida thatch palm is native to the southern tip and southwestern part of Florida. The buccaneer palm grows in the southeastern tip and the Florida royal palm exists in the southwest part of the Sunshine State.
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