Okinawa Trip - The Palms

[LostInJapan]

Okinawa has the reputation of being a perennially warm place akin to Hawaii. In truth its proximity to mainland Asia means that its just as influenced by the continental air masses as the rest of Japan. What saves it from true cold snaps is its southern latitude combined with it relatively small size and low elevation. So, truly tropical plants probably won’t do well in this climate, but anything that is cool tolerant and yet frost sensitive should do fine. Case in point are the palms grown here. Here are a few that I saw during my trip.

Christmas Palm (Adonidia merrillii) – these were planted all over the place. This nice group was in front of our hotel. A nice clumping palm that doesn’t get too large.



Hotel palms – the hotel was 23 stories high and the rooms were arranged around a central open air core. On the third floor of this core was a platform that they had planted a nice array of palms.



Areca Palm (Dypsis lutescens) – another commonly planted palm on Okinawa. These looked surprisingly good given they were planted a short distance from the sea.



Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera) – I was surprised to see this coconut palm in a city park. Although Okinawa is frost free, that doesn’t mean the winters are particularly warm, nor are they dry. Nevertheless, it seemed to be thriving.



Bottle Palm (Hyophorbe lagenicaulis) – another frequently seen palm. Usually planted singly. They seem to thrive in this climate.



Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii) – not too exciting a find, but this guy was growing in a park near the hotel. The stem was so thin I find it remarkable that it could withstand the frequent typhoons.



Royal Palm (Roystonia regia) – I think I IDed this one correctly. I’ve always liked this species since the first time I saw them in Florida as a kid. Their trunks really look like cement. These massive specimens were in a park near Naha City with a remnant forest with many exotic species dominating.



Formosa Palm (Arenga engleri) – one of the native species here, and found growing throughout all of Japan’s southern islands. They never form more than a few feet of vertical trunk, but the fronds can get up to 3 meters in length, giving them a massive look. This one is growing on a mass of coral rock in the same park as the royal palms.



A. engleri and Sphaeropteris lepifera – we also visited a waterfall park in a natural forest area near the city of Nago. Here is where we saw all the tree ferns and other woodland ferns from my other post. In native forest both are found in great abundance. Interestingly, in the more disturbed habitats common to the south of the main island the tree ferns were nowhere to be seen, but the palm was still abundant. Go figure.

[charlie]

Its been really interesting to see what the island looks like, I have sailed past it many times but for some reason always seemed to be winter in Japan whenever I was there, which left a completely false impression of the climate - but then back then I was much more interested in the girls and beer rather than the plants!!

[Stan510]

The Arenga and Phoenix will grow here all others need much more warmth. Nowhere in California will the Manila palms survive considering how popular it is in the tropics. Okinawa has balmier winter nights than soucal's best climates. Helps to be an island although the internet says it very cloudy there. I could live with that.

[MICHAEL]

Lovely! C. lutescens apparently grows not far from coastal shorelines in Madagascar in sand and salt spray - probably why they do so well here. You can see the moist climate in the palms and ferns - so lush.

[LostInJapan]

Stan, it’s not surprising given the difference in climates and latitudes. LA is at 34 N latitude, comparable to Fukuoka, plus the climate is semi-arid. That last bit is truly significant, even if you can provide locally humid, wet conditions.

Michael, interesting. I didn’t know the habitat of C. lutescens, but it certainly makes sense.

What was surprising about Okinawa is that I thought it would feel more like Miami than it did. They both are about the same latitude (Okinawa 26.33 N, Miami 25.76 N) and are in the midst of perennially warm seas. They also are humid climates. One big difference is the seasonal variation. While both have a significant cool down in winter, Okinawa tends to be cloudy and rainy while Miami dries out and stays sunny. Occasionally Miami can experience real cold, down to freezing, whereas Okinawa doesn’t have such extreme lows. On the other hand, Okinawa is often subject to cool, north winds off the continent whereas Miami isn’t usually. That said, both climates are far more similar to each other than southern California or the southwest coast Australia.

Charlie, this one is for you:

[Fukuoka Scott]

Nice pics Tom!

[MICHAEL]

The interesting thing is how adaptable so many plants are, even in climates a bit different from what we think they prefer. Lutescens do very, very well here, and are probably the most commonly planted palm here now because they're skinny, and easily get to thirty feet plus. merillii aren't very common yet, but I have one in a pot that's doing fine. Spindle and bottle palms also seem to be fine here, even over the dry, sunny summers, and it's certainly not Maurtius. I'm always interested in species that seem to do better outside of their natural range than where they 'belong' - Alyogyne huegelii is one of these - grows naturally close to my house but seems much happier and to live longer in cooler, moister climates.

I wonder if Okinawa gets similar cold incursions to (particularly northern) Florida...we don't get anything like that here, and so can grow an bunch of cold-sensitive palms that get zapped in northern Florida when Arctic freezes come through.