By Liliana Usvat
Blog 349-365
Guadalupe Palm, Brahea Edulis, Arecaceae family. An endemic palm to Mexico, this lush small fan palm has shiny green fan-shaped leaves, usually with indentations along the midrib. Guadalupe palms grow to 9 meters high showing a highly fissures trunk 1-1/2 feet in diameter. Endangered in its own native habitat in Mexico, the Guadalupe Island, this beautiful palm is grown successfully nowadays in many palm farms, specially in the United State as an ornamental palm.
Named “edulis” for its edible fruit.
Brahea edulis (Guadalupe Palm, Palma de Guadalupe) is a palm endemic to Guadalupe Island, Mexico; a few stands have been planted elsewhere. It is a fan palm which grows 4.5–13 meters tall. It grows between 400 and 1000 meters above mean sea level.
The entire native population consists of old trees with little successful recruitment for 150 years or so. Until recently, Guadalupe Island supported a large goat population (estimated at 100,000 in 1870, and 5,000 in 2000).
The presence of these goats prevented regrowth of the native trees, including B. edulis, and as a consequence, the ecosystem was drastically altered: the once verdant island turned into an almost barren rock, with weeds replacing the former forests. Below 800–900 m ASL, the palm is essentially the only remaining tree, occurring in a major sub-population and scattered groups in sheltered locations.
Above that, there used to be a band of mixed woodland where the palm was accompanied by Island Oak and Guadalupe Pine. This habitat has now all but disappeared due to the other trees becoming pushed back into higher regions.
The species was probably declining slowly since the mid-19th century. Its range might even have expanded a bit until the mid-20th century however; part of it was shared with other trees as noted above; especially the pine, it's a towering species that presumably grew in many sites now occupied by the palm.
In addition, a forest of Guadalupe Cypress and California Juniper shrubland existed in the palm's present range; the cypress forest was eventually destroyed by the goats and the juniper is nowadays completely absent from the island. Although endangered in the wild, B. edulis is cultivated, especially in California.
Reforestation
Trees are quite wind and salt hardy. They thrive in drier subtropical conditions and don't do as well with constant humidity. Grow in almost any soil type, water is need infrequently, and once established, the plants need little or no care. Propagation: By seeds, which take 3-6 months to germinate.
Guadalupe palms grow amidst indigenous Monterey pine, Pinus radiata var. binata; toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia; sword fern, Polystichum munitum; California juniper, Juniperus californica; and members (some endemic) of such typically Californian genera as Cupressus (cypresses), Eschsholzia (California poppies), Ceanothus (California lilac), Arctostaphylos (manzanita), and Eriogonum (buckwheats).
To be accurate, Guadalupe palms used to grow with these plants, but many became endangered or were extirpated by more than a century of feral goat browsing. The destruction has now ended with the removal of the goats as part of a restoration project, and plants are responding with rapid growth.
Blog 349-365
Guadalupe Palm, Brahea Edulis, Arecaceae family. An endemic palm to Mexico, this lush small fan palm has shiny green fan-shaped leaves, usually with indentations along the midrib. Guadalupe palms grow to 9 meters high showing a highly fissures trunk 1-1/2 feet in diameter. Endangered in its own native habitat in Mexico, the Guadalupe Island, this beautiful palm is grown successfully nowadays in many palm farms, specially in the United State as an ornamental palm.
Named “edulis” for its edible fruit.
Brahea edulis (Guadalupe Palm, Palma de Guadalupe) is a palm endemic to Guadalupe Island, Mexico; a few stands have been planted elsewhere. It is a fan palm which grows 4.5–13 meters tall. It grows between 400 and 1000 meters above mean sea level.
The entire native population consists of old trees with little successful recruitment for 150 years or so. Until recently, Guadalupe Island supported a large goat population (estimated at 100,000 in 1870, and 5,000 in 2000).
The presence of these goats prevented regrowth of the native trees, including B. edulis, and as a consequence, the ecosystem was drastically altered: the once verdant island turned into an almost barren rock, with weeds replacing the former forests. Below 800–900 m ASL, the palm is essentially the only remaining tree, occurring in a major sub-population and scattered groups in sheltered locations.
Above that, there used to be a band of mixed woodland where the palm was accompanied by Island Oak and Guadalupe Pine. This habitat has now all but disappeared due to the other trees becoming pushed back into higher regions.
The species was probably declining slowly since the mid-19th century. Its range might even have expanded a bit until the mid-20th century however; part of it was shared with other trees as noted above; especially the pine, it's a towering species that presumably grew in many sites now occupied by the palm.
In addition, a forest of Guadalupe Cypress and California Juniper shrubland existed in the palm's present range; the cypress forest was eventually destroyed by the goats and the juniper is nowadays completely absent from the island. Although endangered in the wild, B. edulis is cultivated, especially in California.
Reforestation
Trees are quite wind and salt hardy. They thrive in drier subtropical conditions and don't do as well with constant humidity. Grow in almost any soil type, water is need infrequently, and once established, the plants need little or no care. Propagation: By seeds, which take 3-6 months to germinate.
Guadalupe palms grow amidst indigenous Monterey pine, Pinus radiata var. binata; toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia; sword fern, Polystichum munitum; California juniper, Juniperus californica; and members (some endemic) of such typically Californian genera as Cupressus (cypresses), Eschsholzia (California poppies), Ceanothus (California lilac), Arctostaphylos (manzanita), and Eriogonum (buckwheats).
To be accurate, Guadalupe palms used to grow with these plants, but many became endangered or were extirpated by more than a century of feral goat browsing. The destruction has now ended with the removal of the goats as part of a restoration project, and plants are responding with rapid growth.
