My wife and I are vacationing with a couple from Burnaby and can't identify a strange palm tree. It's large - 40-50 feet tall and the leaves fan out in a vertical plane. The leaves resemble a banana tree rather than the usual palm. I've posted photos of it at http://gallery.mac.com/awangstad#100662 if you want to see it. The "fan" shape of the leaves begins at ground level, and then just moves higher as the tree grow. My Burnaby friends call it a "fan palm," but I'm thinking that is more like a Mexican Fan Palm, where each leaf is a fan, not the entire tree. Any ideas? This is my first post, so I'm going to try a link . Hmmm not what I expected.
That's so cool!! I might be going there later this year - where exactly did you see this one? Are they common?
Our condo development had about a dozen of these (Luana Kai in north Kihei), but they're around the island. I imagine that every island has some used in decorative plantings around buildings. Those here are in clumps of 3-4 trees, as you can see in the photos. They are impressive. We've been coming here a couple of years and they look a bit ragged this year - perhaps the weather wasn't quite right. This is the dry side of the island and, up until the deluge last month, folks said it was a drought thus far. - Andy
