Not to do with Madeira, but a nice story if you have not seen it in the news.
Giant talipot palm trees in a Rio de Janeiro park are blooming for the first and only time in their lives, decades after renowned Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx introduced them in the 1960s.
Near the end of its life – which can last between 40 and 80 years – the palm tree produces a central plume filled with millions of tiny creamy-white flowers that rise above its fan-shaped leaves.
The rare phenomenon that unites past and present has sparked the curiosity of those passing through Flamengo Park, who stop, crane their necks to admire them and take photographs, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday.
Vinicius Vanni, a 42-year-old civil engineer, even considered collecting seedlings and planting them.
“I probably won’t see them bloom, but they’ll be there for future generations,” he said from Flamengo Park, which borders a nearby beach and offers a view of the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain.
Native to southern India and Sri Lanka, the talipot palm can reach up to 30 meters in height and produce around 25 million flowers when it blooms, using energy accumulated over decades.
If the flowers are pollinated, they produce fruit that can be transformed into seedlings.
In addition to Flamengo Park, talipot palms can be found in the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, where they are also blooming.
This is because they were brought together from South Asia, have the same metabolism, and were exposed to the same rhythm of daylight in Brazil, according to Aline Saavedra, a biologist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
Saavedra stated that environmental laws strictly regulate the transport of native species from another continent, although talipot palms are not invasive due to their slow growth.
The interest generated by the phenomenon is positive and can encourage a sense of belonging among human beings, leading them to preserve the environment instead of destroying it, according to Saavedra.
“This type of palm tree leads us to reflect on temporality, as it has a lifespan similar to that of a human being. Marx also wanted to convey a poetic perspective,” Saavedra recalled.