Where Do Baby Palm Trees Come From?
It’s not all coconuts
Published in
Apr 17, 2023
Everyone knows that coconuts are the seeds of coconut palm trees. But not everyone knows that the coconut tree is only one type of palm. Two other famous fruiting palm trees are the date palm and the oil palm, whose fruit is squeezed to make palm oil.
But there are around 2600 different kinds of palm trees. How do the other types reproduce?
If you’d asked me, I’d have guessed either by root propagation or by releasing some sort of spores when the palm fronds fall. After all, if it doesn’t have fruit, it can’t have seeds, right?
Then I saw this palm tree while on a morning walk.
“What kind of parasitic vine is attacking that palm?” I asked.
“That’s the palm tree’s seed pods.”
Oh! So that’s how palm trees make babies without coconuts.
