Month: August 2021

Using cabbage palms along roads to produce both shade & safety

This brief (less than four minute) video explores possible landscaping solutions for a sidewalk adjacent to US 41, the Tamiami Trail at its intersection with Gulfstream Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. This is a busy and frequently congested signaled intersection that is being converted to a roundabout. At a recent meeting, nearby residents with pedestrian inclinations argued that proposed Royal Palms would be useless for creating shade. The preferred solution, they suggested, would be “canopy trees”, by which they meant dicots. I believe the term “canopy tree” is misleading and not helpful. All living trees have canopies. Use of the term suggests all other trees lack canopies, which would indicate they cannot produce effective shade. Anyone who has ever walked in a palm hammock knows otherwise.

This is what a double two of cabbage palms looks like on either side of a sidewalk.
This is the route to the famous Naples Pier. Note the shade on the sidewalk.

Lethal Bronzing Vector in the Spotlight

Common Grass-loving insect poses problems for palms

Introducing the American Palm Cixiid, Haplaxius crudus

This tiny (about a tenth of an inch) insect is common in Florida and typically poses no noticeable threat to palm trees (less than one percent are problematic). But that one percent carry a phytoplasma that carries Lethal Yellowing (a problem for coconuts) and is strongly (like very strongly) believed to carry Lethal Bronzing, which is fatal for cabbage palms and many other species of palms.

You can read all about this critter in a new fact sheet produced by UF IFAS Extension – Publication #EENY – 389.

“As part of the palm phytoplasma diagnostic clinic at FLREC, processing of yellow sticky traps to determine presence/absence of H. crudus and if the local population carries the phytoplasma is now offered as an available service to all interested stakeholders. Sample submission forms and instructions can be found at www.bahderlab.com under the “Services” tab.”