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Tropical Palms in Mexico City


Alex High

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Hello fellow palm lovers,

I was doing some research on Mexico City's climate and palms, I find it very interesting. The whole area's climate has been altered drastically through centuries of development and building the city over a lake, leading to the fact that it is now sinking. It it located at over 7,200 ft elevation and as such has a subtropical highland climate, with cool nights and warm but not too hot days. Due to the size and density of the city, it must have an incredible urban heat island. The winter lows for the city seem on par with or even slightly lower than some areas of Southern California, but it warms up more during the days in winter, allowing for some tropical palms to grow there that one would not expect to see, like Cocos nucifera and Adonidia merrillii. Thanks to @EmZ and others for providing the locations of many of these palms. Please post any other tropical/rare palms you know of around Mexico City!

Cocos nucifera

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Adonidia merrillii

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Sadly these Adonidia that were previously are gone. It looks like they were removed as the sidewalk was remodeled, they had been there for a while.

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Roystonea regia

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Dypsis lutescens

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I also noticed this happening across the city to all the CIDP from the palm weevil. Is anything being done to stop its spread? I heard there was an investment to save some of the palms and I sure hope they can be saved, thankfully there are still lots of healthy CIDP around but this is really sad to see. Same thing happening in San Diego from the South American palm weevil.

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Those date palms in the last pics look like they have lethal bronzing or something. 

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Parrish, FL

Zone 9B

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Definitely interesting what these tropical montane climates can grow though. 

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Parrish, FL

Zone 9B

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29 minutes ago, ruskinPalms said:

Those date palms in the last pics look like they have lethal bronzing or something. 

 

27 minutes ago, ruskinPalms said:

Definitely interesting what these tropical montane climates can grow though. 

I thought I remembered reading it was some sort of palm weevil, but with the South American palm weevil usually the crown starts flattening while the fronds are still green, whereas some of these still had full round crowns even after all the fronds were brown. Definitely may be something besides weevils, but sad to see it afflict so many palms across the city and I hope it doesn't affect other species as well. Yes a fascinating climate for sure!

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The second picture is descriptive of the damage the weevil does.

 

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5 year high 42.2C/108F (07/06/2018)--5 year low 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)--Lowest recent/current winter: 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)

 

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3 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

The second picture is descriptive of the damage the weevil does.

 

There are native weevils here and native weevil predators so I can only hope it all balances out as far as weevils go in my area. 

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Parrish, FL

Zone 9B

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In Cuernavaca, just 40 mins outside of CDMX and at roughly 5000 feet, you'll find coconuts and just about every common tropical palm. I do recall seeing at least a few coconuts in Mexico city as well. 

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17 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

The second picture is descriptive of the damage the weevil does.

 

Yes exactly, it very well may be that there are multiple parasites and issues that are afflicting the palms. Tragic to see and I can only imagine how much it costs to remove and replace them. I hope these pests can be stopped.

15 hours ago, Josh76 said:

Beautiful, that's what I love to see, thanks for sharing!

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13 hours ago, ruskinPalms said:

There are native weevils here and native weevil predators so I can only hope it all balances out as far as weevils go in my area. 

Yes it seems that where there are weevil predators the populations are managed and the palms are not killed in droves like this. Sadly as these weevils spread through CDMX and SoCal there are no natural predators so they spread like crazy.

2 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

In Cuernavaca, just 40 mins outside of CDMX and at roughly 5000 feet, you'll find coconuts and just about every common tropical palm. I do recall seeing at least a few coconuts in Mexico city as well. 

Wow I just searched this place up and it sure is palmy, looks very tropical. Gorgeous city and that architecture is so beautiful! Yeah the greater Mexico City area is riddled with microclimates and vast climatic differences. So cool!

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23 hours ago, iko. said:

Are those Bismarckia growing in planters?! See here. In the archive images from April 2019 there are no cars parked, so easier to see the planters.

Yeah they're in planters, but I'm pretty sure the roots are down into the ground now as they're getting no supplemental watering.

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I found these beautiful street plantings of Pandanus in the Polanco area. Very cool to see! Anyone know the species?

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And on the same street a gorgeous Trachycarpus. This is 2 miles from the Adonidia merrillii. Not too often you see these two species doing well in the same climate!

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