Where are wax palms located?
Where are wax palms located?
High in the Colombian Andes in Los Nevados National Natural Park, you’ll find the Valle de Cocora, a valley that’s home to the world’s tallest palm trees. These towering trees—called wax palms—grow as tall as 200 feet, and are sheltered in a protected range.
Are there palm trees in Columbia?
Palms are truly everywhere in Columbia. They are in most neighborhoods, downtown courtyards, and the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, which is a virtual palm tree arboretum.
What is the Colombian wax palm?
The wax palms, which can grow to up to 200 feet tall, are the tallest type of palm tree in the world, as well as the tallest recorded species of monocot. The Cocora Valley, which at its lowest is still roughly 5,900 feet above sea level, is the main place to find these quirky-looking trees.
Are there palm trees in Bogota?
The preferred palm was always the Wax Palm. In Bogotá, you can find wax palm gardens in places such as Universidad Externado de Colombia, the botanical garden of Bogotá José Celestino Mutis, the El Dorado Avenue (26th street) in Bogotá, which is a temple of the wax palm, and the Eje Ambiental in the center of the city.
Why are they called wax palm trees?
It is called a wax palm because members of this genus produce a waxy substance from their trunk. Quindío wax palms are slow to mature. For at least 15 years they focus much of their energy on radial or outward growth of the trunk. For 15 years, all the tree puts out are three pinnate leaves.
Why are wax palms so tall?
Answer: Palms compete for light by growing tall and fast. In this case, they overreach the (ordinary) deciduous trees by growing up and through the canopy to reach the pure sunlight above the shade cover of the deciduous trees. But in palm forests they’re competing with their peers…
What is the national tree of Colombia?
Wax Palm
The national tree is the Wax Palm, which grows In Quindio, a Department of the Coffee Triangle, and more precisely in the Cocora Valley.
Why are wax palm trees so tall?
What are wax palm trees used for?
The tree is also used to make fencing, beams and walls of houses across its range. The wax was used for making candles and matches until the middle of the 19th Century. The extraction of the wax often involved felling the trees.
What’s the tallest palm tree in the world?
Near the small mountain town of Salento in central Colombia lies a valley called Cocora, which is famed for the enormously gigantic wax palm trees growing there. This type of palm tree can grow up to a height of 60 meters (200 ft) and is recognized as the national tree of Colombia.
How fast do wax palms grow?
Because of this, it is easy to estimate the approximate age of any given wax palm. Count the rings and add 15 years for stem development plus another 5 for a full crown. It is believed that these palms can take upwards of 80 years to reach sexual maturity!
How long does it take for a wax palm tree to grow?
Where are the tallest palm trees in Colombia?
In the Cocora Valley of Colombia, wax palms are known to grow as tall as 60 meters (200 feet)! Where are the world’s tallest palm trees located? The tallest palm trees in the world can be found in the Cocora Valley near Salento, Colombia. How do you reach the wax palms in the Cocora Valley?
Why is the wax palm Colombia’s national tree?
Since mature wax palms grow to such incredible heights, the leaves were usually taken from younger trees, often killing them before they could begin reproducing. Colombian botanist Professor Armando Dugand recognized this threat, and started pushing to make the palms Columbia’s national tree back in 1949.
What is a Quindío wax palm tree?
Palm trees usually conjure up images of subtropical beaches, sipping cocktails through a straw stuck in a coconut shell. However, the Quindío wax palm makes its home high in the mountains of the Andes, and unlike any other palms can reach incredible heights of 60 m (200 feet) or more.
What is the National Tree of Colombia?
Near the small mountain town of Salento in central Colombia lies a valley called Cocora, which is famed for the enormously gigantic wax palm trees growing there. This type of palm tree can grow up to a height of 60 meters (200 ft) and is recognized as the national tree of Colombia.
