The sight ofa palm treecan mobilize a tropical view in one coup d’oeil . Whether cross out the site of a spring in a desert or bunch along a humid coastline , they tend to be an stunning and dominant ocular portion of their environs . oft educate for esthetical aim , they also are commercially important for forest and fruit .
The Palms
Palms are flowering plants , or angiosperms , one of the two major groupings of modernistic - day vegetation ( the other being the gymnosperm , which admit conifer ) . They are , like grasses and orchids , monocotyledon , producing one cotyledon or seed leaf . They attain their expectant diverseness and statistical distribution in the tropic parallel of the world , but they do intrude on the semitropics and are widely grown even in temperate regions . The most northern palm grow in Europe , the most southerly in New Zealand .
General Appearance
Palms depart importantly in appearance . Some acquire in solitary strain : A single stem produces a single bunched canopy . The coconut laurel wreath , broadly distribute in the tropics , is an example . Others , like the Senegal date palm and Everglades palm tree , exhibit clump growth , with multiple stems and sprays of foliage at multiple tiers of a exclusive plant . The plants also range in size of it . The royal palms of the Americas often exceed 100 invertebrate foot in height , while other species may be under a foot marvelous .
Features
palm tree trunks , typically marked in some form at the locations of former leaf bases , are sometimes quite fluid , but certain species have thatched , fibrous or horny trunks : The cabbage medallion , for example , often sports the urging of old stem nest up from groundwork to canopy . Some kinds have their stems underground ; the saw palmetto run its stem along the ground , off which the spike - toothed leaves accomplish upwardly . farewell may be slender and elongated or strikingly palm-shaped , as with the lover medallion . Palms produce the biggest leaves of all angiosperm , sometimes in excess of 70 feet in distance . numb leave often mass beneath the live canopy , forming a husky mane , as with the California fan palm . The fruits of certain palms , such as the coconut tree , crude oil and date palms , are excellently comestible .
Ecology
Palms collectively inhabit a massive image of habitats in the Torrid Zone and subtropics . Date palm in North Africa and California fan medallion in the Southwest U.S. maturate along desert watercourses and oases , while numerous palm metal money flourish in mist - swaddle lowland rain forest of southeastern Asia . Tropical hardwood hammocks in the Everglades and Big Cypress country of southwestern Florida may be lorded over by monumental royal palms , solitary or in modest clusters , while a Harlan F. Stone ’s throw away , in drier timber and savannas , saw palmetto and cabbage palms acquire in the thin shade of slice pines .
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