I Ignore Palms

Palms are so ubiquitous here I completely ignore them, except to grumble about the California Weed Palm, Washingtonia robusta, the seedlings of which I am constantly yanking.  A few days ago, waiting for my car to get smog checked, I was forced to actually pay attention to some palms around the smog check station.  They were nearly the only plants to look at, so I looked at them.  This is what it takes to force me to look at Palms:  a smog test. 




The Queen Palm, Syagrus romanzoffiana, is everywhere in Southern California, nearly as common as the (sort of native) Weed Palm.  Queen Palms are cheap, fast growing, and relatively tough, the three requirements for plant popularity in that very large segment of the population that cares nothing about plants.

Fast food, Ficus, and Palms:  suburban ubiquity.


This particular Syagrus had fruit in four stages.  A new blooming cluster of flowers was engulfed by a cloud of happy bees.  Where the bees came from to search out a Palm in a sea of concrete and asphalt was a mystery.



The same palm had a cluster of newly formed fruit,  and a cluster of ripe fruit...


...
and a goodly collection of fallen fruit.  The fuit itself had rotted away (glad I missed that!), leaving a lot of seeds.



Downscale suburban Southern California flora at its most typical.  There was also a rampant Morning Glory that had taken over a chain link fence and was starting in on the power pole nearby:



The Morning Glory was also functioning as a ground cover, competing with bermuda grass.  How could I not get a shot of two thugs at war with each other?  But I didn't.  My car passed the smog test, as it always has, and I was out of there.  Enough thoughts on Palms for one day.