Royal palm trees line each side of McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers for miles. Nearly the entire trees survived Hurricane Ian.
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
Royal palm trees line each side of McGregor Boulevard in Fort Myers for miles. Nearly the entire trees survived Hurricane Ian.
Saul Martinez for NPR
FORT MYERS, Fla. — When a hurricane assaults the coast, as Ian did to Southwest Florida, flip on the TV and the photographs the cameras have to point out are palm trees flailed by the livid winds. The compulsory footage is meant to be visible proof of nature’s fury. And that it’s. But a palm tree standing as much as a hurricane is simply as a lot an emblem of the resilience of life, significantly so in Fort Myers, the City of Palms.
I lastly counted them up: Ian is the twentieth hurricane I’ve lined for NPR —both the large blow or the aftermath. My first was the monster, Hugo, whose eye handed immediately over me in Charleston, S.C., in 1989.
How many occasions I’ve sat in a sweltering resort room, no energy, speaking to the News Desk, and outdoors the shuddering home windows are the long-lasting palms, their trunks straining in the gale, their fronds flapping wildly behind them just like the hair of a damsel in misery.
But the palm trees hardly ever break!
Artist Megan Kissinger poses for {a photograph} at her dwelling in Fort Myers.
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
“The palm tree gets as much wind as all the other trees, but it knows how to bend, it knows how to flex,” says Megan Kissinger, a wildlife artist and native Floridian who lives and paints palms in Fort Myers. “And I think Floridians, if you’ve lived here long enough — and I’ve been through a few Category 5s, they’re pretty terrifying — but you wake up the next morning and you do a count of all your family members and you say, everyone’s here. OK, let’s get to work cleaning up.”
Resilience — human and arboreal.
As it occurs, the swish gulf-side metropolis of Fort Myers will now be recognized for taking a direct hit from Category 4 Ian. But it is also an apt locale for an ode to the palm tree.
Wild parrots sit on palm trees on McGregor Boulevard.
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
Wild parrots sit on palm trees on McGregor Boulevard.
Saul Martinez for NPR
“Fort Myers’ nickname is the City of Palms,” says Karen Maxwell, who meets me on the again gate of the Edison-Ford Winter Estates. She works there as a horticulturist and teaches a well-liked class referred to as Palm Reading. The lush grounds home the stately winter houses of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, in addition to a analysis lab, botanical gardens, museum and backyard store. The property backs as much as the Caloosahatchee River.
There can also be a palmetum. “Think arboretum,” Maxwell says, “but with palms.”
“Foxtail palm, bottle palm, buccaneer palm, thatch palm …” she intones as she inventories the younger trees earlier than her. “Christmas palm, pembana palm, seashore palm, macaw palm, black palm. And they all did fine.”
The Florida state tree is the sabal palm. But probably the most well-known species in this city is the royal palm. Maxwell stands subsequent to a stout royal that needs to be 6 ft in circumference.
Horticulture specialist Karen Maxwell leans in opposition to a royal palm tree. “What makes these trees outstanding in a hurricane is this tree can bend almost 40 to 50 degrees and not break.”
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
Horticulture specialist Karen Maxwell leans in opposition to a royal palm tree. “What makes these trees outstanding in a hurricane is this tree can bend almost 40 to 50 degrees and not break.”
Saul Martinez for NPR
“This is our royal palm and if you’d come up to this you’d think you’re knocking on a column of solid cement,” she says, knocking on the trunk. “What makes these trees outstanding in a hurricane is this tree can bend almost 40 to 50 degrees and not break. Because it has no branches. It is not rigid.”
The palm tree is a monocot, nearer to the grass household than broadleaf trees. It grows from the highest. The inside isn’t onerous and there aren’t any tree rings. It’s a set of 1000’s of vascular straws that carry vitamins and water from the bottom to the crown.
Palm trees come in greater than 2,500 species, principally occurring in the huge heat areas between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They love a very good tempest.
Left: At the house of artist Megan Kissinger in Fort Myers is a ponytail palm. Top proper: The trunk of a sabal palm (cabbage tree) will be seen. Bottom proper: The base of a screw palm tree is seen at Kissinger’s dwelling.
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
“All of them are adapted for wind, many of them are adapted for flooding, and many are also adapted for salt,” Maxwell says. In brief, millennia of pure choice have completely tailored the palm tree for an occasion like Hurricane Ian. “They have the tools to survive,” Maxwell says, grinning appreciatively.
After a hurricane, the bottom is usually affected by brown palm fronds. While it is a chore for town, it is a good factor for the trees. The wind has pruned the lifeless fronds. The reside, inexperienced fronds are powerful and aerodynamic and seldom break off. If they do, they develop again.
Amid raked-up heaps of lifeless fronds, Phil Buck sits on the trunk of a large royal that toppled in the storm. He’s a board-certified grasp arborist who’s in cost of the tree division for Crawford Landscaping, primarily based in Naples. He’s overlooking McGregor Avenue in Fort Myers, which is famously lined with royal palms.
Horticulture specialist Phil Buck stands close to rows of royal palm trees in Fort Myers. “As you can see, they’re pretty beat up,” Buck says. “But they’re still standing.”
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
Horticulture specialist Phil Buck stands close to rows of royal palm trees in Fort Myers. “As you can see, they’re pretty beat up,” Buck says. “But they’re still standing.”
Saul Martinez for NPR
“As you can see, they’re pretty beat up,” Buck says. “But they’re still standing.”
McGregor Boulevard — bordered with some 1,800 royal palms, some taller than 75 ft — is how Fort Myers got here to be referred to as the City of Palms.
“Some of these trees along McGregor, I don’t know the exact date but they can live to 100 years or more,” says Buck. “And we’ve had countless storms, none as severe as Hurricane Ian. But obviously they’re still here. They’re still alive and kicking.”
The English statesman and scientific thinker Francis Bacon made an commentary that properly fits the good adaptability of the palm tree: “We cannot command nature except by obeying her.”
The base of a palm tree uprooted by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers. It’s one of many few palm trees to be knocked over in the storm.
Saul Martinez for NPR
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Martinez for NPR
The base of a palm tree uprooted by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers. It’s one of many few palm trees to be knocked over in the storm.
Saul Martinez for NPR