Behold the lowly palm tree. Always playing second fiddle to actual trees, the palm is a monocotyledon. Where other trees grow a shoot with two little leaves and are classified accordingly as dicotyledons, the palm grows from but one little shooting leaf–very much like a blade of grass. Unlike their beefier brethren, palm trees have no actual wood; they maintain their tree-like shape by growing thick overlapping leaf bases and extremely large, thick cells. Maybe I wasn’t clear; these freakishly tall plants have no actual wood in them. I find this unsettling.
Since overlapping leaf bases don’t make for good ships, buildings or even shade, the palm is relegated to contributions bordering on the mundane. Take for instance these tough, fibrous strands called piassava (technically I think that term is reserved for Brazilian Palms but no matter). These bad boys are collected to make the world’s finest…wait for it…brooms. Yup, you’ve probably pushed around these unassuming fibers at some point in your life as you swept the garage. Alert the media!
So humdrum is one way to think about the lowly palm but it occurs to me that everything is relative. I guess if you think about it, any old tree can reach the sky if it’s made of wood; it takes a pretty special tree to reach such heights when you’ve only got highly lignified cells and overlapping leaf bases to hold you up. And brooms may seem boring at first blush but without them dust bunnies would be much, much harder to catch. More importantly, without brooms the story of Harry Potter is far less interesting, staff at the Apollo Theater would have had to come up with a whole new way of removing terrible amateur acts from the stage and curling would be an even stranger sport. Now that I think about it–thank goodness for the stately palm tree.
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Again I’ve fallen way behind on visiting my favorite photoblogs. Bear with me; I’ll catch up this weekend. Cheers!
34 Comments
wonderful black and white abstract
Fantastic details in b&w. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a palm photographed like this before.
awesome details in very good use of light a singular scenery but indeed elegant and harmonious the research of interest, very nice work my friend
Very nice!
Nice contrast in this picture!
Great patterns and an interesting text.
Very good graphic !
nice Curves
In my mind, palms have always been more fascinating than their dicotyledonic siblings.
What a delightful post Chris! Your image is pure artwork, your caption science made into pure entertainment. Interestingly, Palmetto trees were used near Charleston during the Revolutionary War to protect coastal fortifications. When the British fired cannons at the forts, the cannon balls simply bounced aside or were absorbed into the fibrous palm trunks. Far out!
So cool–thanks for that cool historical fact Doug. I love it!
Fascinating lines and curves! Like the way you cropped this shot and the wonderful close-up details!
Exquisite detail..and pure poetry to accompany the image. Love it!
didn’t Tom Hanks make a ton of rope from palms in the Castaway movie ?
Like the hair of an ancient mermaid, textures here are just so fascinating ! Wonderful work.
it creates a nice pattern!
nice detaisl and structures in this pictures Chris
the framing makes this an interesting abstract
Fabulous abstract, but let me just posit that to those of us who do not live in tropical climes, palm trees are the height of romance. That’s a pretty good lot in life.
Cool shot. Those textures are amazing.
Man I love the way you get creative with the simplest of things…
Superb capture, amazing texture. Fine details.
Great abstract and narrative! Very interesting…and I didn’t know this about the palms. It’s also interesting to think how often common and seemingly unusable things contribute great things to our lives–like so many people do.
A beautiful text. A picture made up of beautiful textures. Disordered, thou hast rearranged like a painting of a great master. Revisit our vision … Beautiful, my friend!
Superlative texture and detail Chris. Pushed to the sidelines they may be, but palm trees hold a special place in the mind of us Northern Dwellers.
Blue/green coral seas, empty beaches of white sand and the ubiquitous, but most welcome palm tree edging into the picture. What would we dream about without them?
Christopher,
Your writing and photography are wonderful! When you write about your kids and not being able to sleep before a road trip, you remind me of Doug. Your Oct. 12 post was particularly timely for me… thank you.
-Becky
Wow. I love the textures in this one, and the bw treatment is just perfect.
Wonderful b&w abstract and instructive explanatory notes. Your words make a great read!
I was mesmerized by the lines curving round the photo and the subtle differences between black, grey and white. The image itself had me captivated without even knowing what it was, then I read you words and learned something as well. Great
I see multiple directiosn and ways or highways criss-crossing, love the textures !
Nice b&w and texture !
only you Chris can make palm so beautiful! A most moving shot
love the textures… share more of these kind 
truly a look of abstract art. amazing image.
just amazing Christopher, like the curves and the good transformation in b&w