How the age of the PALM Tree can be identified | Palm trees don't have annual rings |Blogger | Mamoona Ghaffar

How the age of the PALM Tree can be identified | Palm trees don't have annual rings |Blogger | Mamoona Ghaffar

#Palm trees do not produce #cambium. In fact, palms are incapable of the ring-shaped secondary growth seen in other trees. Cut a palm tree down and you’ll see tiny circular vessels distributed evenly throughout the trunk. These are vascular tissues, the xylem, and the phloem. Stem cells lining these vessels produce “anomalous secondary growth” to thicken young trunks but once the trunk reaches its maximum diameter this no longer occurs. This keeps palm trunks narrow and stiff, perfect for supporting their frond crowns.

The #drawback is that injuries to palm tree trunks can never heal. Without a cambium to direct closure over a wound, fungi, insects and other pests can easily penetrate wounded trees. The “bark” of the palm tree does not bark at all; it is made of “sclerified” (hardened) cells left over from the bases of previously shed fronds.

This makes a palm, not unlike a column of reinforced concrete with the vessels acting as rebar.

Palm leaves are also different. They emerge as primary growth from the meristem.

The youngest leaves are at the top of the leaf crown. As the palm grows taller and older more leaves are added to the top and older leaves grow larger until they hit their maximum size.

When the leaves reach the base of the crown they are cut off from the vascular system, “abscising” their bases into new bark. Some palms don’t drop their leaves cleanly, resulting in “skirts” of dead leaves that dangle below the crown. Growing like this means that you can predict which leaves will drop from a palm tree, prune them, and collect them before they fall.

Steps for the identification:

1. To know the age Look up the species of the tree using resources at the library to get a general sense of the lifespan of the palm tree.
2. Determine if the tree has gone through a radiocarbon dating process. A national park service representative might be able to tell you if this information is available. 
3. Radiocarbon dating is a scientific process that measures the tree's growth rate by analyzing it with chemicals. This is a contested method--and one that's used sometimes for dating palm trees--because it takes the tree's growth rate over a certain time span and infers this rate for the lifespan of the plant. This method, however, doesn't take into account factors that can inhibit growth at any given time, such as climate or disease.

Palm trees are so named because many of them feature fan-shaped, or palmate, fronds. There are over 2,600 species of palm trees, including some that can withstand temperate climates with cold winters. The distinguishing characteristics of palm trees are their fronds, trunks, height and growth rates, and their stems.

Examine the fronds:

 The best way to begin classifying your palm tree is based on the fronds. Some palm trees have feather-like fronds, while others have fan-like leaves. Both types of fronds can range from green to blue-green to silvery. 

• Feather-like fronds (pinnate) are found on some of the most popular and common palm tree types like the Areca Palm, Coconut Palm, Queen Palm, and Date Palm.
• If the tree has fan-like leaves, the most common are the Bismarck Palm, Mexican Fan Palm, and Windmill Palm.