The palm garden of Santa Cruz
There was a heavy rain last night, and it cooled down a lot this morning. Riding along the coastline, the deep gray clouds were low in the sky, dyeing the sea gray as well. Only in the distance, the sunlight was powerfully shining on the sea surface through the gaps in the clouds, forming a few dazzling whites. I wore all my clothes, but I still felt chilly!
The palm garden of Santa Cruz was a landfill in the 1970s. When we walked on the road in the garden, admiring the tall and burly trees around, it was hard to believe that there was garbage buried up to 50 meters deep under our feet! The botanical garden has more than 3100 kinds of plants, is the largest palm garden in Europe, and is the botanical garden with the most complete display of fan palms, silver leaf palms and Cuban fan flowers in the world. The most noteworthy of these is the globally rare plant 'suicide palm tree'. Its leaves can reach 5 meters long, which is the largest leaf of flowering plants found so far. The pistil is in the shape of a huge pyramid, 5 to 7 meters high, and the satellite can see this tree. It blooms once every 30 to 80 years, and blooming represents the end of its long life. After the palm tree reaches its peak, thousands of small flowers will bloom at the top, forming a huge flower cluster, and each flower can bear fruit after pollination. Once the flowers and fruits are bloomed, the nutrients stored in the tree will be exhausted, and a few months later, the palm tree and the fruit will collapse and die.
Figure 2: Park soil structure diagram
Figure 5: Suicide palm tree. The tourist next to it is 1.9m tall, guess how tall the tree is?!!! This tree is much smaller than usual, probably because it grows by the sea and is affected by strong light and wind. The last time other trees in the garden bloomed was in December 2021
Figure 6: Traveler's Tree, a very interesting name! It can grow to about 10 meters high.
Figures 10 and 11: Sugarcane! This is the first time I have seen such a huge sugarcane tree and its flowers, I thought it was a banana tree at first.
Figure 12: In a few seconds, the restaurant staff poured down so much rainwater from the roof
Figure 13: Delicious vegetarian pancakes from a Filipino restaurant
Palm Garden Ticket: €6/person