Madeira : Palms and trees

[Pargomad]

Hi everyone, I created this new thread to talk about the diversity of palms and trees we can find on Madeira island (and neighboring islands), whether native or exotic. As you may already know, Madeira is known as the floating garden of the Atlantic, you can find species worldwide, from South America to Australia, via Africa, palm trees included.

Occasionally, I will post some information on a specific palm or tree with some pictures in order to illustrate them on the island (pictures taken from the internet). I hope you guys will enjoy it !

For the first species, I'm going to talk about ,maybe, the first imported palm tree on the island (unlike what you may think, there are no endemic species of palm tree on the island), namely the Canary date palm.

The Phoenix Canariensis is endemic to the Canary islands and is worldwide spread for its beauty and for its capacity of acclimatization. We can find it easily on Madeira and Porto Santo, used as an ornamental tree in avenues, parcs or private gardens, etc. but you can also find it "in the wild" on both islands.

Pictures:

Some exemplars on Porto Santo:

And other exemplars on Madeira:

The Canary date palm is maybe the most planted palm tree on the island, but since 2007 the red palm weevil has killed a lot of beautiful and ancient trees on the island, and it's apparently hard to stop it.

[Cluster]

Looking forward to seeing more from our island, I believe I took some photos from some delonix regia and other palms you could use here if you find it useful:).

I enjoyed the Porto Santo pictures a lot and Ponta de São Lourenço ones in Madeira as well:)

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

I look forward to this thread too.

[Josh-O]

awesome postcard like pictures!!

[Neil C]

Does anyone know what those contraptions are on the trunks in the last photo? They almost look like giant stockings...do they stop weevils, spare patrons from gettings weevils? I'm at a loss.

Regards Neil

[Palmaceae]

Does anyone know what those contraptions are on the trunks in the last photo? They almost look like giant stockings...do they stop weevils, spare patrons from gettings weevils? I'm at a loss.

Regards Neil

Looks to me there are guards to keep squirrels (or like animals as I am not sure they have squirrels there) from climbing the palms?

[Pargomad]

I think it's more to keep the shape of the trunk, in order to make it esthetically acceptable.

[Pargomad]

Today I'm presenting you a tree (not a palm) native to the Macaronesian islands (Azores, Madeira, Canary islands, Cape Verde): the dragon tree.

The Dracaena draco is cultivated worldwide as an ornanemtal tree for parks, gardens, etc... But this plant comes from our archipelago (and the surrounding islands). In the archipelago of Madeira this species, although very grown as an ornamental plant in gardens, is extinct in the wild on the island of Porto Santo and Madeira. There used to be two natural specimens in the wild on a cliff overlooking the village of Ribeira Brava, but they died a few years ago.

Here's a picture from the last natural dragon tree of Madeira, in Ribeira Brava:

The use of this plant in the production of Dragon blood, and especially the destruction and occupation of their habitat by agricultural and urban reasons, are responsible for their extinction. The dragon tree used to grow in what we call the "zambujal", the first natural vegetation floor. The Zambujal is the area on the coasts of the island which rises to 300-400 meters above the sea level. It used to share this area with some other native xerophilous plants like the Euphorbia Piscatoria.

Here's a picture of the zambujal on the southern coast of the island with the native flora (with a dracaena draco probably planted) and also with exotic cactuses (opuntia ficus indica):

But the Dragon tree is still present in the archipelago in parks or gardens as an ornamental tree, and there's a preservation movement from the government who created a protection park with centenary specimens: the nucleo dos dragoeiros.

They are also resettling some areas of the island, namely the Ponta de São Lourenço, with dragon trees, in order to preservate this magnificent tree.

Edited March 24, 2015 by Pargomad

[Stelios]

It will be interesting to see all the varieties of the palms especially tropical ones that grow on the island. I think I saw a photo of a satakentia in an old thread.

[Pargomad]

I will for sure Stelios, be patient ahah. For the satakentia it's a litlle bit tricky because I can't make the difference between an archontophoenix and a satakentia. I should study this question, but it will take some time until I get sure how to know whether it's a satakentia or an archonto.

[DeletedAccount14e83d09a24f]

great thread

[Pargomad]

Thank you Proeza ^^

[Jose Maria]

The Canary date palm is maybe the most planted palm tree on the island, but since 2007 the red palm weevil has killed a lot of beautiful and ancient trees on the island, and it's apparently hard to stop it.

Here in Costa Rica we have another palm weevil , a black weevil , from the same family, Rhynchophorus palmarum, called "picudo" in Spanish.

It can be controlled by traps that use an attractant "feromonas" , and in the trap we put insecticide.

But there has to be support from the technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture to have everybody with palms to comply with this.

It is very cheap and effective.We use one trap in 3 to 5 hectares of oilpalm. Can also control picudos from coconutpalms.

The picudos are not 100% eliminated, but their incidence falls to the low digit percentages.

[DeletedAccount14e83d09a24f]

Pargomad do you have the annoying picudos on Madeira too? that's so sad to hear.

The Canary date palm is maybe the most planted palm tree on the island, but since 2007 the red palm weevil has killed a lot of beautiful and ancient trees on the island, and it's apparently hard to stop it.

Here in Costa Rica we have another palm weevil , a black weevil , from the same family, Rhynchophorus palmarum, called "picudo" in Spanish.

It can be controlled by traps that use an attractant "feromonas" , and in the trap we put insecticide.

But there has to be support from the technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture to have everybody with palms to comply with this.

It is very cheap and effective.We use one trap in 3 to 5 hectares of oilpalm. Can also control picudos from coconutpalms.

The picudos are not 100% eliminated, but their incidence falls to the low digit percentages.

That is not an insect. That's the devil on Earth. Here in Spain a looooooooooooooooooooot of Canarias date palms or Phoenix Dactylfera died. :(

Many of the existing naturalized dactylfera palms died too. In a lot of orange plantations (i'm speaking about Valencia province) there were growing some naturalized dactylferas until the 2009-10 when the big intrusion of this weevil. From 2009 to here, many naturalized ones died and a lot of famous and loved palm trees too. In my town, 4 of the oldest CDP in all the town died (all were in the same square) for this devil in the skin of a insect.

A palm with more than 50 years, near to my house, which had 15-20m height, died too for the same reasons. The major problem in Spain is the palmeral of Elche, which has more than 200.000 CIDP and it's known that the weevil arrived to Elche, where it can happen a total catastrophy. Local authorities are trying experimental treatments which give useful results in most cases. The problem, is that this treatment is quite expensive. I hope some day some countries make some agreement and try to make this treatments in a long scale. But I think that to our presidents palm trees aren't interesting for them....

Well, for this offtopic comment I will help Pargomad a little little bit with a photo of Madeira:

That Howea from Funchal is looking exactly as the natural Howeas in Lord Howe island!

Edited March 25, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[JT in Japan]

Does anyone know what those contraptions are on the trunks in the last photo? They almost look like giant stockings...do they stop weevils, spare patrons from gettings weevils? I'm at a loss.

Regards Neil

Looks to me there are guards to keep squirrels (or like animals as I am not sure they have squirrels there) from climbing the palms?

Definitely there to keep rats etc from climbing up and nesting in the crown.

[Pargomad]

Yes the red palm weevil has been a real problem the last years for our beautiful palms, mainly the date palms (phoenix).

Following what Proeza said earlier, I'm going to talk about the Kentia Palm. The Howea forsteriana is a palm native to Lord Howe Islands in Australia. We can found it easily on Madeira island in private gardens, parcs, etc. The coasts of the island offer a climate similar to its original habitat. It is widely grown on the island because of its tropical looking and it closely resembles the coconut palm, people might even make a confusion between these two species, maybe it's because of that they don't plant coconut palms : they don't need them to have a tropical garden.

Now the pictures:

From a certain distance you can confuse them with some coconut palms:

There is also an other species close to the Howea Forsteriana : the Howea Belmoreana, also present on Madeira island.

[Monòver]

Fantastic pictures! The gardens are beautyfull and the howeas are amazing.

In this side of Spain is very difficult to see big Howeas.

But we have in our gardens one of the most beautyfull madeira's plant, the Echium Candicans.

I love this blue flowers!

Edited March 25, 2015 by Monòver

[Pargomad]

Yes Monòver, the Echium Candicans is one of the most beautiful endemic plants of Madeira I will talk about it one day too ^^

(PS: All the photos are from the internet, namely from Flickr and panoramio)

Edited March 25, 2015 by Pargomad

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Kevin,

Those dragon trees are amazing! It is a shame that they were made extinct in their native habitat.

John

[Cluster]

Well at least there are plenty on public places and gardens on the island. Even our house has some, though they need more space to grow properly (they are in a pot). And since they will be reintroduced to the wild they are not actually extinct?. While not ideal is better than not being able to get it, or some of it back. Speaking of extinctions:

Madeira actually means "wood" and it is called like that because when Portuguese discovered it, it was fully covered with a "special" forest. This forest is called "laurisilva" and Portuguese set fire to some of it when they arrived. Nowadays this forest is Unesco protected, but only covers like 20% of the island. I think at some point Pargomad will want to talk about it. I can only imagine how different the climate should be back then with all this forest, I can only guess it was more humid and rained more due to all this vegetation. This forest is one of the biggest attractions on the island and Madeira is still one of the few places where you can see it (and has the biggest laurisilva forest in the world).

[Pargomad]

You're absolutely right Cluster, soon I will talk about the laurissilva and the endemic flora of Madeira.

But for now I will continue with another palm tree, very common on Madeira : the archontophoenix. On Madeira we have two species : the bangalow palm (archontophoenix cunninghamiana) and the Alexandra Palm (archontophoenix alexandrae), both are from eastern Australia where they grow in litoral rainforests.

They are planted for their tropical look (just like the Howea forsteriana) in subtropical and tropical places. On madeira they are planted as ornamental palms in gardens, streets, hotels, etc... They might confuse them with coconut palms and that's why they are so widely planted on the island.

The Alexandra palm:

The bangalow Palm :

[Pargomad]

Going on with the most common palm trees on the island, today it's the date palm's turn. The Phoenix dactylifera is a palm tree mostly cultivated for its fruit: the date, but also as an ornamental palm tree in many mediterranean, arid, subtropical and even tropical areas, Madeira is no exception.

We can see them on Porto Santo island too sharing the area with the canary date palms. On Madeira island this species is mostly planted in seafronts, beaches (instead of coconut palms and other tropical palm trees...), but also in gardens and parcs, etc...

The date palm is the second victim of the red palm weevil on the island, nevertheless it is less affected than the canary date palm.

Another point important to note: in the archipelago we can see some kind of hybrids between the Phoenix palms and sometimes it is quiet hard to define them.

Here we can see a date palm sharing the photo with a canary date palm in São Vicente:

Here's another palm in Porto santo but I don't know whether it's a date palm or an hybrid it has the shape of a date palm but the leaves of a canary date palm, tell me what you think of this one:

And now the date palms in Calheta, as I mentioned before it is common to see them in marinas, beaches, seapromenades etc...

Edited March 29, 2015 by Pargomad

[avanza]

Thank you very much

[Josh-O]

[Cluster]

Good pictures once again:), even this February we picked up some fruits from many Phoenix dactylifera located in Funchal to eat:)

[Pargomad]

Thank you for your messages ^^ I'm glad to see that you enjoy my little documentary.

Today I'm presenting you one of my favorite palms : the Roystonea. This tropical palm tree is native to the Caribbean Islands and other parts on the coasts of Central and northern South America, they are commonly known as Royal palms and they are mostly cultivated in subtropical and tropical regions. (We can also see a few exemplars in Mediterranean regions like southern Portugal or southern Spain).

On the island, the royal palm is quite common (but still not as common as the archontos or the howeas), we can appreciate them mostly on the southern coast in private gardens, parks, avenues or hotels. For the specific species I can't distinguish them since they look all the same for me, but basically I know that the main species of the island is the Roystonea regia (but I heard there are also some roystonea borinquena too).

This palm tree is widely cultivated on the neighboring archipelago (the Canary islands) since decades, meanwhile on Madeira this palm is slowly getting "trendy" and it's increasingly planted in private gardens and public places. Now they are often planted with Flamboyants (delonix regia) on the island.

Now the pictures:

The estrada monumental:

The two oldest Royal palms on the island in Funchal :

Now in Ribeira Brava:

and here's another one in Funchal:

Edited April 1, 2015 by Pargomad

[jardinierpalmiertrat]

very nice!!

[Pargomad]

Today I'm going to talk about one of the most common palms of Madeira : the Syagrus romanzoffiana. The queen palm is native to South America, from Paraguay and northern Argentina north to eastern Brazil and west to eastern Bolivia. It is commonly planted on tropical, subtropical and mediterranean regions.

On Madeira it is widely planted as an ornamental palm tree in parks, private gardens, avenues, etc. we even call it "coqueiro de jardim" that means in portuguese " garden coconut palm". Maybe the Madeirans confuse them with the real coconut palms (cocos nucifera) because of the name they gave to it.

In Funchal there are some beautiful exemplars, quite ancient and tall, in gardens or quintas.

Now the photos:

[Pargomad]

As promised, today I'm going to talk about the native flora of Madeira, namely the different floors of vegetation and also the exotic forest introduced by the portuguese settlers during the colonization.

First, the archipelago of Madeira belongs to the Macaronesian region, which includes the Azores, the Canary islands and Cape verde. The particularity of these islands is a forest called Laurisilva that once covered most of the Azores, Madeira, and parts of the Canaries between 400–1200 m altitude (the eastern Canaries and Cape Verde being too dry). These forests resemble the ancient forests that covered the Mediterranean basin and northwestern Africa before the ice ages. Lots of species, which are found in the Macaronesian laurel forests, are also known from fossil evidence to have lived around the Mediterranean before the ice ages. (wikipedia)

For Madeira, there are various micro climates and also different vegetation floors due to the altitude and the proximity to the sea. The southern coast is known to be sunnier and warmer than the north. The eastern coast is also known to be dryier than the rest of the island. So we can see different micro climates from an almost tropical climate to a cold mountainous one.

Here's a picture of the vegetation floors :

The first floor: the xerophilous vegetation namely called the "Zambujal":

The Zambujal, as mentionned earlier with the dragon tree topic, is the first floor from the sea to 300-400 meters above the sea (200 on the north side of the island). This floor is composed of plants and trees for dryier climate like the dragon trees, the "zambujo" (olea maderensis), the euphorbia piscatoriae.

Here's a picture of some euphorbias, zambujos and a dragon tree and other endemic plants.

But the portuguese introduced other plants and trees that invaded the native flora: like the Arundo donax (spanish cane), some succulent plants like the opuntia ficus indica or the aloes, etc. This area is the most urbanized (houses, hotels etc.) due to its climate and it is also the best on the island for the cultivation of tropical fruits, namely the banana, avocado, mango, papaya, etc.

Here we can see some Opuntia ficus indica in Ponta do Pargo:

And now some pictures of the big banana plantation (and other tropical fruits) on the southern coast of the island and the urbanization:

All the photos are taken from the Internet (Flickr and panoramio... etc)

Edited April 7, 2015 by Pargomad

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

A truly GORGEOUS island, and the water is probably the bluest in the whole world! I wonder if Madeira is the last UNSPOILED island in the whole world. The waters of the Caribbean Sea, South Pacific and Indian Ocean used to look as blue as this, but in many area no longer look this blue due to over development and pollution. I really hope the Portugese government strictly limits new developments on the island and declares large areas as nature preserves.

John

[Stelios]

Really beautiful place!

[Pargomad]

Yeesss the sea is absolutely beautiful, on the island, wherever you are you can see the deep blue of the Atlantic, in summer it's "bluer" than in winter.

Following the topic of the flora of Madeira, I'm going to talk about the zambujal (again) as you know the zambujal on the southern coast is still existing but with the urbanization and the agriculture, we can only see this flora on the cliffs, like on this photo:

(you can see the euphorbias with the opuntias)

On the eastern coast, (from Funchal to Ponta de São Lourenço) there is less agriculture than on the southern coast and it is getting dryier the more eastern you get (there is a semi arid micro climate). You can still see the endemic zambujal but with other plants like cactuses and aloes, spanish canes, etc. They are repopulating the Ponta de São Lourenço with Canary date palms, aloes, opuntias, agaves, dragon trees and what I believe to be some young mediterranean pinetrees:

On the northern coast, due to the humidity, there is almost no zambujal areas. We can still see some cactuses and some plants from the Zambujal on the cliffs, but the exotic flora and the next floor of vegetation (the laurissilva) have invaded the area. Also the urbanization and the agriculture (tropical fruits but also vineyards) contributed to the exctinction of the native flora.

A xerophilous plant native to Madeira :

And here Ponta delgada with the vineyards and tropical fruit cultures:

On the left, you can see a green vegetation on the cliffs, it's the next floor : the transition forest. It is composed of trees from the Laurissilva and other exotic trees and plants, on the northern coast it can begin right above the sea level and ends just before the Laurissilva at 1400 meters. On the southern coast this endemic vegetation is extinct and has been replaced by other forests... (from 400 m to 1300m) I will talk about that next time, I hope you'll enjoy it.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Pargomad

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Yes, I enjoy it very much! Keep the beautiful photos and interesting narrative coming.

[Pargomad]

Today I will follow the topic with the next floors of vegetation of the island : the transition forest and the laurissilva. These two areas (from 400-1300 m. on the south and from the sea level to 1400 mm on the north) are composed of endemic trees of the Macaronesian islands, especially Laurel trees that once covered the Mediterranean basin before the Ice ages. This subtropical forest needs a lot of humidity and that is why, when you go for a walk in the middle of the Laurissilva, you'll see a humid and very foggy athmosphere.

This forest is still existing on the north side of the island, from the sea level to 1400 meters of altitude, mainly in the middle of the mountains where you can have a real fog and humid micro climate.

Here you can see the humidity and the jungle aspect of the forest:

You can find species like the Til (ocotea foetens), the Laurel (laurus azorica), the vinhatigo (persea indica), the Barbusano (apollonias Barbujana), etc

The transition forest is a mix of the Zambujal and the Laurissilva, namely the Laurissilva of the Barbusano (apollonias Barbujana). You can still find it on the north side of the island, like in Porto Moniz for example:

You can see some trees on the first plan of the transition forest, then on the cliff you can spot some euphorbias of the zambujal: that is a typical example of how Madeira would be if nobody hadn't discovered the island.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Pargomad

[Pargomad]

Now for the exotic forest introduced by the colons, it is very complex to define only one forest since various plants and trees from Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia ended up on the island by the hands of the portuguese people. Basically the transition forest on the southern coast is inexistant since the portuguese established some villages there. After the subtropical climate (where you can have tropical species like the coconut palm) from the sea level to 400 meters on the southern coast and from the sea level to 200 meters on the north, we have a mediterranean micro climate (or oceanic micro climate on the north) great for vineyards, cherries, apples, oranges, and other mediterranean fruits

Here in Estreito Da camara you can see the vineyards and the cherry trees:

Inland, there is a similar climate where you can have a more mediterranean flora (here you can see some chestnuts and eucalyptus):

On the island you have a lot of different exotic forests from 500 m to 1400 m, mainly 3 : The eucalyptus and acacia forest (50% of the exotic forest), The maritime pinetree (37%) and the chestnut tree (4%) (then 9% for other trees). The maritime pinetree is actually dying on the island (due to an insect) and maybe in some years it will be extinct.

Acacia forest in Machico :

Eucalyptus forest in Ponta do Pargo:

And some pinetrees (you can see some of them are dead):

There are other forests with other exotic trees introduced by the Portuguese in some areas like the Cryptomerias or Cupressus Macrocarpa. In the last floor of vegetation (the mountainous micro climate), you will see other exotic forests and native plants.

You can see here the complexity of the Madeiran flora with native forests sharing the island with Subtropical, mediterranean and temperate species from all around the world.

Edited April 9, 2015 by Pargomad

[Cluster]

Hello, do not have much time at the moment but I will try to help you with some more pictures related to the difference type of flora:)

Here are some pictures in the east (dry) zone taken with my cam:

In the same zone regarding our blue water:

Northern coast, Porto da Cruz:

And Fanal around 1100-1300m:

These laurels (part of the laurisilva forest) are not the same species as in the continent or so they told me. In this zone you can find some older than 600 years old, before we discovered the island.

[Tenerife]

If someone told me that the picture from above it's from La Gomera, I would believe him. That is totally lookalike to a lot of parts from the Canary Islands; those ones with dry climate but not desertic like the Eastern islands. VERY BEAUTIFUL BUDDY! They appear to be in their habitat!!! Those ones from below are some Phoenix Canariensis in their habitat, and the landscape and those ones from your photo are about the same. Big like!!!

[Pargomad]

Yes Tenerife, when I saw this picture on the Internet I immediately thought of La Gomera or Gran Canaria, but Porto Santo is actually very different from those islands since there's no endemic flora native to the Macaronesia like on the Canary Islands, the flora of Porto Santo is 90 % exotic (only mediterranean trees and plants).

[Pargomad]

Back to our palm trees, today I will talk about maybe the most appreciated palm on earth: the coconut tree.

The cocos nucifera is a palm tree which has spread across much of the tropics and it is cultivated in many countries for its fruit : the coconut. It is also used for ornamental issues because of its beauty and its tropical representation.

On Madeira islands this palm tree is still very rare (only about thirty exemplars on the coasts) because the madeirans don't have access to them like the canarians do for example. There's an other reason : they don't know how to deal with these unknown palms, which are not like the most common palms on the island, they need much more care and water. They trim them (which is actually a bad thing), they remove the inflorescences and they don't water them enough.

Today Madeira is considered as the northernmost place where coconut palms can grow, but we still don't have the proof that they fully fructificate since the authorities remove the inflorescences and fruits.

We can see some exemplars mostly in hotels, private gardens, public places, etc. If you want some additional knowledge and information, check this thread out " Cocos nucifera on Madeira Island", you'll see more photos and explanations about the cares and climate stuff.

Here you can see some pictures from the thread mentionned earlier:

Some baby coconuts:

One coconut palm in Funchal:

Another one in a private garden:

Some exemplars in a hotel:

And the famous cocos of Funchal:

[Rafael]

Excelent thread Pargomad 

I wonder if it is possible to sucessfully grow these endemic trees outside the islands, in temperate and moist climates.