It's mid-December. Leaves cover the ground in the arboretum. For the most part, the air temperature is cool or a little warm. Although the mosquitoes have not completely disappeared, they certainly have reduced activity and ferocity. So, now is a good time to start working on the overgrown, wet areas of the arboretum that receive little attention during the hot, fast-growth months of the year.
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This is the area of the arboretum previously known as 'the lower pond'. It's on the south side of the long white wooden bridge that runs between the Student Union Building and the Science Building, Mickle Hall. This is one of our wet areas of the arboretum, although today it does not retain water. From late-June through October or November, this area is left unto itself due to the high number of mosquitoes. As we near the winter solstice, this area is grown up with new trees, weeds, dewberry, drooping limbs, and generally thick with palmetto leaves. A large patch of Louisiana irises is waiting to be revealed.
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In order to more easily walk around in this area, trimming the drooping leaves of the sabal palm (Sabal palmetto) is one of the first things to do.
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Large, drooping leaves obscure the handsome trunk of this tree.
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Leaves of the sabal palm are really big! Petioles are super long and the leaf blades are long and wide. All of these leaves were removed from one trunk. There are three sabal palms in the arboretum collection
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From this point of observation, we see the fuzzy, thin trunks of the Chinese windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei), one of our few exotics; a pair of loppers hangs from the foremost trunk. The newly trimmed sabal palm, which has a thick trunk by comparison, is further in the background. Overall visibility in the lower pond is increased by simply trimming the one sabal palm. Much manual weeding needs to be done to prepare the iris patch for the spring.
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You can read more about this individual sabal palm on an older blog post, found here.
