2014/2015 Winter in south Europe

[Cikas]

Temperatures right now.

[Alicante]

Today hotter than expected for this cold wave. We reached 15°C as the high mark for today. So for today the max and min temps are 15/4,1.

In those last years we never seen temps under 3°C; I hope this remains too and I hope this weekend we not gonna see marks under that

According to the predictions its gonna be hotter, but who trust on predictions haha! I'm seeing that this cold wave is quite hard in some parts of Spain, not enough in this zone but who knows if it's gonna be harder ...

This weekend I will be travelling in a city located at the interior at 600-650m located at different levels of altitude (a very peculiar city, named Alcoy) which is surrounded by mountains at 1100-1200m. There grows a lot of phoenix and washingtonias, and this weekend they will get -4°C so I would look if they have little damages.

Normally with -4 they won't get damages, right?

Ah and I remember that the last time I've seen some palms in a private garden that appeared to be syagrus. Will they survive 3 consecutive days with low temperatures under 0°C¿? I've searched around the net but the info about the syagrus is a bit unclear.

Edited February 5, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Alicante]

Temperatures right now.

Oh... Good & Warm temps.

It's exactly what you saying before! If you go only a bit far from the coast, the temps get significantly lower. It's really good the microclimate due to warm currents that you have on that part of Croatian coast.

One question what you the people of Dubrovnik do if you want to go to Croatia ? You have to pass trough customs of Bosnia or you have a free circulation withouth borders if you want to go for example from Opuzen to Slano?

I don't know if i'm explaining very well. It's some kind of 'corridor' between those 2 parts of Croatia or you have to pass through Bosnian customs ??

Regards!

Edited February 5, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Kostas]

Most Phoenix sp. will not care about -4C, they should remain undamaged. From the common species, only exposed P. roebelenii may be damaged

The Syagrus romanzoffiana won't mind the below 0C lows either

Jurica, great to see your Archontophoenix fare so well on their first winter!!!!! Mine( A. alexandrae, not cunninghamiana ) was about 50% damaged its first winter in the ground, coming from a greenhouse. So they are off to a good start!

[Alicante]

P. Roebelenii are those little ones, normally planted for ornamentation/in front of shops, malls, etc; right?

If is that one, I remember only to see a couple of them in Alcoy planted in those and quite protected between mid-altitude buildings in concrete pots.

Permanent ground pots (so they can't be moved indoors) something like this ones but planted from the city hall, not private ones:

Normally I get a look at almost all palm trees in those places like Alcoy where they are more strange; if I see them I will take a photograph.

Regards!

Edited February 5, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Phoenikakias]

Temperatures right now.

Oh... Good & Warm temps.

It's exactly what you saying before! If you go only a bit far from the coast, the temps get significantly lower. It's really good the microclimate due to warm currents that you have on that part of Croatian coast.

One question what you the people of Dubrovnik do if you want to go to Croatia ? You have to pass trough customs of Bosnia or you have a free circulation withouth borders if you want to go for example from Opuzen to Slano?

I don't know if i'm explaining very well. It's some kind of 'corridor' between those 2 parts of Croatia or you have to pass through Bosnian customs ??

Regards!

pRoeZa, what you are talking about is called in the diplomatic terminology exterritorial highway-connection. One of the formal causes of WW2.

[SouthSeaNate]

Love the avatar, would be my choice as well Howea are awesome!

Thanks That Howea is one of many growing in the garden of San Anton Palace, the residence of the President of Malta. Howea are quite commonly planted here I guess they can take the hot summer sun due to the high humidity here...

The weather here was warm again, i recorded a maximum of 20.2C today after an overnight low of 13.5C, but it was the last of the warm days, 15C forecast for tomorrow...

[Phoenikakias]

Most Phoenix sp. will not care about -4C, they should remain undamaged. From the common species, only exposed P. roebelenii may be damaged

The Syagrus romanzoffiana won't mind the below 0C lows either

Jurica, great to see your Archontophoenix fare so well on their first winter!!!!! Mine( A. alexandrae, not cunninghamiana ) was about 50% damaged its first winter in the ground, coming from a greenhouse. So they are off to a good start!

WRONG assessment, simply wrong! I know better thanks to the 2004 cold spell.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Phoenikakias

[Rafael]

A dry and cold wave is hiting right now at least Spain and Portugal.

In Alicante is damn cold...

[Alicante]

Phoenikakias, what happened to them ?

[Alicante]

Yup, that cold wave is what i've been mentioning from some posts ago. Is a looot of cold for us. Hahaha I can't imagine myself in a place that gets everytime -5,-10,-15, etc because for me cold are all the temps under 10 haha!

Alicante has now 7°C; here now we got 8,1°C. And the wind is blowing quite hard too, very ugly day. This fast wind is gonna leave us from tomorrow but this last week the wind was blowing a lot.

Edited February 5, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Rafael]

Yup, that cold wave is what i've been mentioning from some posts ago. Is a looot of cold for us. Hahaha I can't imagine myself in a place that gets everytime -5,-10,-15, etc because for me cold are all the temps under 10 haha!

Alicante has now 7°C; here now we got 8,1°C. And the wind is blowing quite hard too, very ugly day. This fast wind is gonna leave us from tomorrow but this last week the wind was blowing a lot.

BUT the wind chill is quite lower and some palms wont like it off course.

[Kostas]

Nate,

Yeah, i saw the presentation you did on that garden, its amazing! How hot do you get in the summer and how humid do you stay? Its great to see them doing well in full sun! Here in Greece we also have Howea in full sun but very very few have ever tried planting them over the years, so we have very few. But i hear there are some with 10m of trunk in south Peloponnese! Mine are doing well also, though burning some in days above 35C.

Howea forsteriana is a definite favorite, have 5 in the ground plus one at my cousin's and wish to add many more!

Phoenikakias,

Common Phoenix sp. are plenty cold hardy enough to not damage at -4C. The only common Phoenix sp. are P. canariensis, P. dactylifera and P. roebelenii. Phoenix canariensis and P. dactylifera have seen close at least -8C in Melissia without damage and see -4C annually with no trace of damage of course. P. roebelenii can also see -4C and maybe not get damage if under canopy and the freeze duration is short.

The other Phoenix sp. are uncommon and many of these are hardy as well such as P. sylvestris and P. theophrastii. P. reclinata and P. rupicola would certainly damage but are not common species at all. Any other species than these is very very rarely grown or seen.

Rafael,

Hope its not too bad and stays above 0C

[Alicante]

Love the avatar, would be my choice as well Howea are awesome!

Thanks That Howea is one of many growing in the garden of San Anton Palace, the residence of the President of Malta. Howea are quite commonly planted here I guess they can take the hot summer sun due to the high humidity here...

The weather here was warm again, i recorded a maximum of 20.2C today after an overnight low of 13.5C, but it was the last of the warm days, 15C forecast for tomorrow...

Yes? Show us some photos if you can buddy, it would be great to see them; they're beautiful palms.

I like those palms too, they look great and they give a tropical touch where they're planted!

Edited February 5, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Alicante]

Yup, that cold wave is what i've been mentioning from some posts ago. Is a looot of cold for us. Hahaha I can't imagine myself in a place that gets everytime -5,-10,-15, etc because for me cold are all the temps under 10 haha!

Alicante has now 7°C; here now we got 8,1°C. And the wind is blowing quite hard too, very ugly day. This fast wind is gonna leave us from tomorrow but this last week the wind was blowing a lot.

BUT the wind chill is quite lower and some palms wont like it off course.

For me 7°C is cold mate I would say it's cold even without any wind hahaha!! Yep i'm sure that some palms and not only palms, some plants too would not like that for sure.

[Rafael]

Nate,

Yeah, i saw the presentation you did on that garden, its amazing! How hot do you get in the summer and how humid do you stay? Its great to see them doing well in full sun! Here in Greece we also have Howea in full sun but very very few have ever tried planting them over the years, so we have very few. But i hear there are some with 10m of trunk in south Peloponnese! Mine are doing well also, though burning some in days above 35C.

Howea forsteriana is a definite favorite, have 5 in the ground plus one at my cousin's and wish to add many more!

Phoenikakias,

Common Phoenix sp. are plenty cold hardy enough to not damage at -4C. The only common Phoenix sp. are P. canariensis, P. dactylifera and P. roebelenii. Phoenix canariensis and P. dactylifera have seen close at least -8C in Melissia without damage and see -4C annually with no trace of damage of course. P. roebelenii can also see -4C and maybe not get damage if under canopy and the freeze duration is short.

The other Phoenix sp. are uncommon and many of these are hardy as well such as P. sylvestris and P. theophrastii. P. reclinata and P. rupicola would certainly damage but are not common species at all. Any other species than these is very very rarely grown or seen.

Rafael,

Hope its not too bad and stays above 0C

Thanks Konstantinos i hope too!

[Alicante]

Thanks Rafael another thing learned for me today! (About winds and temps) According to this chart, in a place with 0°C and 40km/h of wind, it feels like -15°C: http://www.windsurfers.com.ar/sensacion%20termica.htm

I don't know how fast is blowing in Alicante, but here now we have 8°C and 21km/h so according to that chart the wind chill is ~about 2°C.

How the wind chill affects the plants? Is not the same as having 2°C as real temperature or is the same?

Sorry for this "noob" question but I don't know the answer hahaha XD

[Cikas]

Temperatures right now.

[Alicante]

lucky guys! you got the warm temps we got last week

next week it will affect central/south east Europe. I hope that it will be more milder and you'll suffer less than us.

What a big difference from today and 7 days ago. 7 days ago we got normal temps, now those are the temps with the cold front: (too bad for Wetterzentrale that in Spain they only use temps from airports, like in Valencia; now is 7ºC and they put the 4ºC from Manises, which is Valencia city airport)

I don't know why the other day it showed a lot of temps from Spain, and now it only appear the temps from the meteorological stations from airports: http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Reurmett.html whatever, here they are:

30 January: (20:45)

5 February: (23:55)

The difference is enormous

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[SouthSeaNate]

Nate,

Yeah, i saw the presentation you did on that garden, its amazing! How hot do you get in the summer and how humid do you stay? Its great to see them doing well in full sun! Here in Greece we also have Howea in full sun but very very few have ever tried planting them over the years, so we have very few. But i hear there are some with 10m of trunk in south Peloponnese! Mine are doing well also, though burning some in days above 35C.

Howea forsteriana is a definite favorite, have 5 in the ground plus one at my cousin's and wish to add many more!

In summer we have the following average highs/lows:

June 29C/20C July 32C/23C August 32C/24C. (my average minimums are actually a little higher being at the coast). Temperatures sometimes reach as high as 40C & September is usually very hot & sticky too...

The annual average humidity in Malta is 73%, but from mid summer to the end of September it becomes very hot & humid, with dewpoints reaching as high as 28C, so "real feel" temperatures often in the low to mid 40's celcius, many people think Med climate so dry heat, but not here!

I love Howea's too, just a shame they are relatively slow growing, that's why I have not planted one yet as I want faster growing palms

[SouthSeaNate]

Love the avatar, would be my choice as well Howea are awesome!

Thanks That Howea is one of many growing in the garden of San Anton Palace, the residence of the President of Malta. Howea are quite commonly planted here I guess they can take the hot summer sun due to the high humidity here...

The weather here was warm again, i recorded a maximum of 20.2C today after an overnight low of 13.5C, but it was the last of the warm days, 15C forecast for tomorrow...

Yes? Show us some photos if you can buddy, it would be great to see them; they're beautiful palms.

I like those palms too, they look great and they give a tropical touch where they're planted!

I will post some pics tomorrow

[Alicante]

For that thing about phoenix, washingtonias and cold. Those ones, are planted in Ciempozuelos, a town 20km south of Madrid and a bit bit colder than Madrid (they don't have the big city moderation temps!). They're called by the locals as "the Steel palms" or Goliaths. Those 4 Phoenix Canariensis never got any type of protection in winter. In 2009 the people were running a city signature for the city hall for protect them on winter (prune the leaves and tie them). For their size, those ones are planted here from at least a decade. Look at their health:

2008 Street View photo:

2012 Street View (zoomed) photo:

Photos from some palms planted normally in the street.

This one in a private house located at almost 800m in chalet-cities (cities with an "american flavour" that means 90% detached houses, not buildings like the normal in Spain) so if blows cold winds, nothing protect the trees:

Those ones from a roundabout in Getafe:

Is crazy isn't it?

Well like those are a lot more across Madrid, Phoenix Canariensis and Dactylfera. Adding Washingtonias Filifera. I've seen some Robustas too, but they're significantely less compared to this ones. And Trachycarpus fortunei in a loooot places, but this isn't any remarkable thing. Obviously the palm trees aren't the most common trees in Madrid Community, but, how is this possible ? This is crazy! Madrid got temps like Alcoy, if even it's at the heart of Spain and Alcoy is 60-70km from the coast; in Madrid they're at about 700-750m altitude.

I am seeing that their normal temps for January (the coldest month) is 10/3 and their lowest temperature recorded ever is -7.4ºC ... which for it's position and altitude is a very high mark. All the palms from above are photos from towns/small cities from the metropolitan area of Madrid (20-30km from Madrid) and I bet they get lower temps than Madrid. Today will be the coldest day of this year in Madrid, expected with -3ºC minimums. Ciempozuelos or Torrejon, with photos above, will get -4ºC.

What do you think about their health status? I still can't imagine myself why Madrid has big and healthy palm trees Really i'm very very surprised!!

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Alicante]

Love the avatar, would be my choice as well Howea are awesome!

Thanks That Howea is one of many growing in the garden of San Anton Palace, the residence of the President of Malta. Howea are quite commonly planted here I guess they can take the hot summer sun due to the high humidity here...

The weather here was warm again, i recorded a maximum of 20.2C today after an overnight low of 13.5C, but it was the last of the warm days, 15C forecast for tomorrow...

Yes? Show us some photos if you can buddy, it would be great to see them; they're beautiful palms.

I like those palms too, they look great and they give a tropical touch where they're planted!

I will post some pics tomorrow

Great. It's a shame for Google that they won't came to Malta to make Street View. I hope some day you'll have Street View too. We can "travel" almost all the world ... specially we the palm lovers and i'd like to see Malta here!

Regards

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Alicante]

Nate,

Yeah, i saw the presentation you did on that garden, its amazing! How hot do you get in the summer and how humid do you stay? Its great to see them doing well in full sun! Here in Greece we also have Howea in full sun but very very few have ever tried planting them over the years, so we have very few. But i hear there are some with 10m of trunk in south Peloponnese! Mine are doing well also, though burning some in days above 35C.

Howea forsteriana is a definite favorite, have 5 in the ground plus one at my cousin's and wish to add many more!

In summer we have the following average highs/lows:

June 29C/20C July 32C/23C August 32C/24C. (my average minimums are actually a little higher being at the coast). Temperatures sometimes reach as high as 40C & September is usually very hot & sticky too...

The annual average humidity in Malta is 73%, but from mid summer to the end of September it becomes very hot & humid, with dewpoints reaching as high as 28C, so "real feel" temperatures often in the low to mid 40's celcius, many people think Med climate so dry heat, but not here!

I love Howea's too, just a shame they are relatively slow growing, that's why I have not planted one yet as I want faster growing palms

Yup, they grow very slow. I've readed that they stop growing from temps under 18ºC so the Mediterranean coast isn't the right place for them... But with our hot summers can make they grow quite good. (i'm saying our but not referring only to my zone or Spain, referring to Malta too, south Greece etc) As i've readed they like a lot hot temps on summers. But they hate temps for more than 37ºC. If they stop growing under 18ºC they only will grow good on summers, in our zones we got 4 months a year with lows of 18º or more, but it's sad that they don't grow as good as other tropical species... I know the existence of 3 Howeas, I hope i'll photograph them soon too!

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Cikas]

Howeas hate hot temperatures. They are native to Lord Howe Island. That island has really distinctive climate. Apsolute record temperature on that island is 31.3°C.

Temperatures on that island are most of the time in 11-25°C range.

They hate hot. On 30+°C temperatures they will burn very easily. They can even die if they last too long. They will stop growing on 30°C. They also hate to cold temperatues to.

They like coolish temperatures around 18-20°C the best.

[Alicante]

Howeas hate hot temperatures. They are native to Lord Howe Island. That island has really distinctive climate. Apsolute record temperature on that island is 31.3°C.

Temperatures on that island are most of the time in 11-25°C range.

They hate hot. On 30+°C temperatures they will burn very easily. They can even die if they last too long. They will stop growing on 30°C. They also hate to cold temperatues to.

They like coolish temperatures around 18-20°C the best.

Ah... Well I readed they like hot but in that website but reading more on the net they were referring to hot with 26-27ºC. I've readed that they get in some places 35ºC (not in their native place, that's for sure) and they can support well those temps for some days. Well it really doesn't matter, the problem is that they stop growing if the temps get lower than 18ºC. I don't knowed if this is true or not so I've searched in other websites and trustworthy ones like ForoJardin say the same, under 18ºC it stops growing, but survives at -2/-3 if it's healthy. But they're beautiful so personally if you have time to plant it and take care of it... It worths!

Someday I will get a big garden. that day i'd choose archontophoenix alexandrae, dypsis lutescens, dictyospera album, roystonea regia, dypsis madagascariensis... They can grow good here and they break the palm monotony of here which 90% are phoenix/washingtonias/syagrus (in that order haha!) it's sad to see that we with this warm mediterranean climate only have the same palms. If you do streetview on urbanizations of the south coast of California, which got almost the same climate as here, got a looot of syagrus, archontophoenix, dypsis decaryi, etc. Or the south coast of Australia (mediterranean climate too); Sydney get a low palm tree rate compared to all the trees they got, but almost all are tropical ones, not phoenix or washingtonias. I would be grateful only by seeing syagrus and archontophoenixes in all places! I hope someday that will happen in Europe too!

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Alicante]

Or Beccariophoenixes! They're soooooooooo great. I've never seen one and I've never seen one in any forum on the net from Europe. At least in the first pages from the Google Search

The problem is that they are very hard to find and no one grows them for selling. I only can buy some seeds from eBay coming from an american seller.

They're absolutely marvelous. The definitive coconut lookalike for me!

Edit: Upss sorry with those last posts, i've crossed the line because it doesn't got with the topic title. But I really like those palms and I was writing here so sorry!

Well the thread it's about cold and the Beccariophoenix Alfredii is quite hardy , -7/-8 I am seeing in some websites but in forums people contradict those sites saying that with light frozens they get damage.

Returning to the thread. Here the official station marks 6ºC now and it seems to be the minimum for today; basing in that yesterday we reached the minimum at ~2AM and at this hour yesterday we got 5ºC.

I'll update tomorrow if we got changes with temperatures!

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Phoenikakias]

Howea fosteriana grows well with a temp of 12 C and above, but as said before it hates really hot temps.

[Kostas]

Howea forsteriana grows very well in both cool and hot weather. They don't stop growing at 18C by no means, neither at 30C. They hate heat with sun in that it can burn the foliage above 35C(they tend to acclimate to it though over multiple years) but they still grow fast in the heat, as they do in the cool. They are not too slow btw, they are just not fast. 2 of mine are trunking now.

Beccariophoenix alfredii are nice palms and very easy to grow. They do are available through European vendors

The forecast for next week here is not very encouraging, hope it changes. -1C on the forecast for both Melissia and Pyrgos...

[Phoenikakias]

Oh yeah, here ya go again. Quite a rare occasion that we have in southern Greece a palm - lethal cold spell during February, last time it could have been so was in 2008, but despite the temporarily heavy snowfall temps never dropped during this incident below -1 C and went up again very soon, so that the afternnoon of same day was again with clear sky and mild. Hopefully again this coldspell runs on this pattern!

Edited February 6, 2015 by Phoenikakias

[Alicante]

Ah yes? I've readed in a lot websites that with 17/18 stops growing! I don't have any idea about this palm I only know is beautiful haha so I searched all I said from her on internet, and in some places we're saying that. But if you say it's 12 sure it's 12. You have a lot experience!

BTW what do you guys think about the palm trees in Madrid?? How is possible for them to be that healthy? They aren't even rare, in urbanizations half of the houses have phoenixes in their gardens!

Finally today a bit warmer than expected in predictions. 13/5.5 for now. Finally temps raised a bit from 6° in the morning but dropped near 8AM to 5.5° so it remains the minimum for today.

Hope tomorrow won't break the "no temps lower than 3° in the last years" but it seems not because the first one from this year appeared to be more rough. This year we reached the lowest temp in the past years. We reached 3,2° that day according to the official station (not mine outside my house which I said first and marked 3,8)

Edited February 6, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Kostas]

I have no idea at which temperature Howea stops growing It grows all year long here and opens multiple leafs in both summer and winter. I would suspect that a palm would gradually grow less and less till the temperature it stops growing, but i am not seeing that here. They grow best in the summer, second best in the fall, a little less than that in winter and a little more again in Spring. But they still grow at a good pace throughout the year, the variation in growth rate is not big enough to pinpoint a temperature at which growth stops, especially since temperature varies greatly between night and day here during winter.

[SouthSeaNate]

Much cooler today Max of 15.0C after an overnight Min of 10.0C, but at least it was mostly sunny & the sun is gaining strength now so feels warm out of the breeze...

As for Howea forsteriana, yes they grow best in "mild" climates without extremes, but they do grow in hotter climates too. In Mediterranean type climates they do best closer to the coast where there is more humidity, they grow well in coastal California for example but can be burnt by the hot sun in more inland areas...

Now for a few photos of some Howea growing at the San Anton Palace Garden in Malta (I do have photos of others but only have these ones uploaded at the moment)...

Most are growing close to or under a giant Banyan tree in the centre of the gardens

[Cikas]

Temperatures right now at 0:20h ( or 12:20 AM ).

[Cikas]

Some palms from Dubrovnik and Konavle area. Phoenix canariensis is the most common palm here. They are everywhere.

Seedlings popout everywhere. Without people who remove seedlings, this palm could easily naturalized here.

Huge 100 years old robustas

Some other palms

Edited February 6, 2015 by Cikas

[Cikas]

And some from Trsteno ( Dubrovnik ) where I live.

Wild one. Probably will be removed in the future. Because it is growing in the water stream. Cannas are naturalized in some parts of Dubrovnik. For example in this water stream. They escaped from someone's garden decades ago, and now whole water stream is full of them.

Agavas and yucca plants are naturalized in Dubrovnik area.

Laurel forests

[Alicante]

Great! Here are a lot of naturalized phoenixes, in some places they are so much that they are considered as afavorable to plagues; (and naturalized ones are most affavorable to get plagues, tens of naturalized Phoenixes died) because in this zone we got a serious threat with the 'Picudo Rojo'

That asian insect that eats palm trees from inside. I don't know the term in english but translated it's something like red bug.

And there is a native palm, the palmetto, which grows on mountains, mostly on +400m mountains you can see more than in low-high mountains, low high mountains tend to have cactus (being a lot of them tuna fruit cactus), and a lot of agavas and yuccas; and some naturalized phoenixes if there are houses with those palms near. They're a lot of washingtonias in some places in the middle of nowhere growing, but quite less than phoenixes.

Edited February 7, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Cikas]

Great! Here are a lot of naturalized phoenixes, in some places they are so much that they are considered as afavorable to plagues; (and naturalized ones are most affavorable to get plagues, tens of naturalized Phoenixes died) because in this zone we got a serious threat with the 'Picudo Rojo'

That asian insect that eats palm trees from inside. I don't know the term in english but translated it's something like red bug.

And there is a native palm, the palmetto, which grows on mountains, mostly on +400m mountains you can see more than in low-high mountains, low high mountains tend to have cactus (being a lot of them tuna fruit cactus), and a lot of agavas and yuccas; and some naturalized phoenixes if there are houses with those palms near. They're a lot of washingtonias in some places in the middle of nowhere growing, but quite less than phoenixes.

In Dalmatia Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is also started to spread, unfortunately. Palms in Dubrovnik area are preventively regularly treated with insecticides. At least ones on public places.

But these in private gardens are threatened.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Cikas

[Alicante]

In Dalmatia Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is also started to spread, unfortunately. Palms in Dubrovnik area are preventively regularly treated with insecticides. At least ones on public places.

But these in private gardens are threatened.

Yup, quite sad that this is affecting Europe... In the Valencian Community for example the government from Elche is trying a new method to kill the bug and it's working!

The Palmeral of Elche (2º biggest in the world, 1º in Eurasia) has more than 200.000 phoenixes. The red bug affected a few of them so very serious treatments and preventions started in all the palmeral and they fortunately worked very good. The affected palms were cured with a new type of modified fungus, which totally kill insects and make them grow from inside like a type of "cotton" They get very serious but it's normal in a place like this one, declared World Heritage by the Unesco. Some photos, it's really cool. This summer i'll visit it and I will make a decent photo-reportage! There is a garden too inside the palmeral with a lot of types of tropical palms, I heard a couple of roystoneas growing there, some of howeas too, archontophoenixes, arecas, dypsis, hyophorbe, dictyosperma, strelitzia, etc... Please summer come!

And one photo from down!

And here the howeas i've speaking before (at the sides of the photo)

BTW returning to the thread. NOW only 3.2ºC and a hour ago 3ºC SO NEW COLD "RECORD" !!! (in those last years) This is the coldest day i've seen here since I am registered in this forum!!

Edited February 7, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[Phoenikakias]

I think I see in those pictures from the palm grove of Elche some dubious specimens, which suggest that a hybridization between CIDP and dactylifera did take place occasionally. Or are they simply only a peculiar form of datylifera, or even a different sp (Phoenix iberica)?