Palm trees in GADV.

[The Master]

Despite the cold weather climate the park is located in, GADV has had palm trees over the years. Today only a few scatted specimens of Needle Palms remain in the Golden Kingdom, these are the most cold hardy of palm trees. They are scrub palms with fan fronds, they pretty much remain at ground level. Their small trunks are covered with sharp needles, hence their name, so don't get too close to them. 

 

Back when the Golden Kingdom first opened it used to have several Windmill Palms, which are the cold hardiest of trunking palms, palms that grow trunks. They are also a fan palm with hairy trunks for cold protection. However, they are marginal in this climate so they must be placed in the most optimum growing locations. Moreover, cold hardiness for Windmills can vary a lot from individual plants depending on several factors such as planting location, genes, and climatization. Windmills grown from saplings in colder climates tend to be much tougher than Windmills originally grown in warmer climates or greenhouses. Plus they still need some protection during unusually bad winters and treatments in the Spring. This is probably why all the Windmills seem to have died off in the Golden Kingdom by its second year. Windmills are usually pretty good at recovering from cold injuries such as complete frond loss and even spear (new foliage) pull. But sometimes gardeners are unfamiliar with Windmills high recovery rates and cut them down perceiving them as dead. 

 

When Plaza Del Carnaval first opened it too had palm trees only for its first season. From my memory they appeared to be Christmas Palms which are not cold hardy for this region. They can only take temps down to 30 for a little while. While Windmill and Needle palms can withstand 0 degrees for brief periods. I do know for sure the palms in Plaza Del Carnaval were pinnate (feather) fronds which tend to be not as tough as fan palms. I suspect these palms were merely in large containers and removed after the first season.  

[The Master]

Here are some generic pictures of the palms.

 

Needle Palms which are still growing in the park.

 

 

Windmill Palm.

 

Christmas Palms.

[29yrswithaGApass]

Don’t forget the palms that were added for Dino Island in 1999!

 

[ericthewanderer]

I remember the ones by Dino Island.For a while there were also some palms by Jenkinson's Pier.