Chamaerops humilis Population In Southern France?

[PalmTreeDude]

Does anyone know anything about Southern Frances Chamaerops humilis population? I recall seeing a map of its range here once and it included a tiny area of Southern France. Are there any pictures of them anywhere? Google wasn’t much help. Is the population even still there? 

Edited October 16, 2020 by PalmTreeDude

[kinzyjr]

6 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

Does anyone know anything about Southern Frances Chamaerops humilis population? I recall seeing a map of its range here once and it included a tiny area of Southern France. Are there any pictures of them anywhere? Google wasn’t much help. Is it even still there? 

There is a photo on Palmpedia of a specimen palm in Menton. 

The map on this thread has a black portion on the map roughly coinciding with the area around Cannes, Nice and Menton, so that might be a good place to start poking around.

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/51240-mediterranean-fan-palm-native-to-what-areas-of-europe/

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Nothing better than being redirected to a post you made 3 years ago about the same question. 

[LivistonaFan]

I found an interesting photo collection on instagram: 

After reading that I looked at a few videos on YouTube and this one is particularly interesting:

At timestamp 23:54 there is an European Fan palm on the right side. Thereafter two specimen at 24:09 and at 42:24 there is another small one. Of course, there are a few more in this video which I forgot to mention (plus loads of others which weren't shown in the video), but it is safe to say that there are more opuntia cacti on this peninsula than palms. The population is very scarce and not exactly predominant like other palms in their habitats. In fact, I am almost certain that Hanbury Gardens (a botanical garden east of Menton) has at least as many "naturalized" Chamaerops humilis as Cap Taillat.

 

On 10/16/2020 at 3:28 PM, kinzyjr said:

There is a photo on Palmpedia of a specimen palm in Menton. 

The map on this thread has a black portion on the map roughly coinciding with the area around Cannes, Nice and Menton, so that might be a good place to start poking around.

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/51240-mediterranean-fan-palm-native-to-what-areas-of-europe/

There are many Chamaerops humilis in this region, almost every garden has one. Like Washingtonia, they are self-seeding there and if you look closer, seedlings are sprouting everywhere, sometimes even growing out of road gullies. I even saw them at altitudes of up to 700 m (2300ft), so they are plenty cold-hardy for the region and perform like natives.

Edited October 17, 2020 by LivistonaFan
it's just a peninsula, not an island

[PalmTreeDude]

On 10/16/2020 at 9:28 AM, kinzyjr said:

There is a photo on Palmpedia of a specimen palm in Menton. 

The map on this thread has a black portion on the map roughly coinciding with the area around Cannes, Nice and Menton, so that might be a good place to start poking around.

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/51240-mediterranean-fan-palm-native-to-what-areas-of-europe/

Thank you, I was looking for that thread. 

 

On 10/16/2020 at 10:01 PM, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

Nothing better than being redirected to a post you made 3 years ago about the same question. 

I was looking for that thread but I couldn’t find it at the time. 

 

23 hours ago, LivistonaFan said:

I found an interesting photo collection on instagram: 

After reading that I looked at a few videos on YouTube and this one is particularly interesting:

At timestamp 23:54 there is an European Fan palm on the right side. Thereafter two specimen at 24:09 and at 42:24 there is another small one. Of course, there are a few more in this video which I forgot to mention (plus loads of others which weren't shown in the video), but it is safe to say that there are more opuntia cacti on this peninsula than palms. The population is very scarce and not exactly predominant like other palms in their habitats. In fact, I am almost certain that Hanbury Gardens (a botanical garden east of Menton) has at least as many "naturalized" Chamaerops humilis as Cap Taillat.

 

There are many Chamaerops humilis in this region, almost every garden has one. Like Washingtonia, they are self-seeding there and if you look closer, seedlings are sprouting everywhere, sometimes even growing out of road gullies. I even saw them at altitudes of up to 700 m (2300ft), so they are plenty cold-hardy for the region and perform like natives.

Thank you for sharing this video, I was wondering if they would be seen just walking around the area. 

[LivistonaFan]

On 10/17/2020 at 6:08 PM, LivistonaFan said:

I found an interesting photo collection on instagram: 

Apparently the instagram plugin isn't loading anymore. Maybe palmtalk doesn't allow instagram plugins?

 

Anyway here is the link to a few photos of the Chamaerops humilis in their French habitat: 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2KogGqIlNp/?igshid=xzi42esfcuef 

the caption beneath the photo collection is quite interesting: "European fan palms (Chamaerops humilis)  at their northern limit in Southern France (Cape Taillat, close to Saint-Tropez). They also represent the northernmost natural palm population worldwide (43.5 °N)! The European fan palm was believed to have become extinct in France since it was last reported in the middle of the 19th century. But in the early 1990s, some individuals were rediscovered at a few locations between La Ciotat and Frejus. It is assumed that a decrease in grazing pressure by livestock and an increase of the average temperature (0.5 - 1 degree C) since the 1950s has facilitated the recovery of the palms (Medail & Quezel 1996). Currently, there exist maybe around 100 individuals taller than one meter at Cap Taillat. Some even have stems of around 1.5 meter and a few are fruiting. I was also able to find some healthy seedlings.
In 2017, a forest fire destroyed most of the aboveground parts of the woody vegetation (Pinus halepensis, Pistacia lentiscus, Phillyrea sp.), with the exception of the palms. Most of them have survived - including their stems, so they seem very well adapted to fire! Such fires might even promote the ongoing recovery of the palms, as they keep down the surrounding vegetation with which the palms compete for light, water and nutrients."

 

[kevin54500]

Bonjour je suis francais, et j'ai déjà étais sur cap taillat c'est la le plus belle endroit ou vous pourrez voir des chamareops humilis, comme si bien dis au dessus il y a eu un gros incendie en 2017, pour les voir il faut longer la magnifique plage de l'escalet est de la suivre un chemin sauvage vous conduiras parmi les chamareops vraiment magnifique !

[Josh76]

Bienvenue sur le forum @kevin54500 

Avez-vous des photos de cette population de palmiers?

[Alex High]

On 10/17/2020 at 12:08 PM, LivistonaFan said:

I found an interesting photo collection on instagram: 

After reading that I looked at a few videos on YouTube and this one is particularly interesting:

At timestamp 23:54 there is an European Fan palm on the right side. Thereafter two specimen at 24:09 and at 42:24 there is another small one. Of course, there are a few more in this video which I forgot to mention (plus loads of others which weren't shown in the video), but it is safe to say that there are more opuntia cacti on this peninsula than palms. The population is very scarce and not exactly predominant like other palms in their habitats. In fact, I am almost certain that Hanbury Gardens (a botanical garden east of Menton) has at least as many "naturalized" Chamaerops humilis as Cap Taillat.

 

There are many Chamaerops humilis in this region, almost every garden has one. Like Washingtonia, they are self-seeding there and if you look closer, seedlings are sprouting everywhere, sometimes even growing out of road gullies. I even saw them at altitudes of up to 700 m (2300ft), so they are plenty cold-hardy for the region and perform like natives.

Great video! I have seen that same map showing a small population of C. humilis in Southern France, but I never knew exactly where they grew. Thank you so much, I would love to go there! Beautiful specimens!