Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Critically Endangered

In Miami, you see many beautiful royal palms (Roystonea regia) which is a genus of eleven species of monoecious palms, native to the Caribbean Islands, and the adjacent coasts of Florida, Central and South America. Although royal palms are considered a "tropical" palm, they can grow as far North as Daytona Beach and Jacksonville and also in Southern California, southern Arizona and the extreme southern Texas barrier islands near the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. They are on the right in this photo.

On the left side, you see the Hyophorbe verschaffeltii, aka the Palmiste Marron, or Spindle Palm which is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family. Spindle palms grow in the USA only in south Florida and in isolated favored microclimates in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area and the Cape Canaveral area of central Florida. Spindle Palms come from Rodrigues island, Mauritius. It is critically endangered and included in the red list of threatened species.
Critical

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