Roystonea

In the Santa Clara Valley, California where I was born and raised (before it
become known as "Silicon Valley"!) a Roystonea sp. had been used as avenue trees
and also to line drives up to 
farm houses in the days when this was premier agricultural land. The
Victorian-era house I grew up in had an old specimen in the front garden. I
thought it the most odd and ugly looking tree with a 100 ft. trunk and a little
tuft of fronds on top! But I have to warn you that  the fronds are enormous and
can be quite damaging to anything or anybody below when they drop.

I was fortunate enough to visit Cuba in 1978 during a brief period when our
goverment lifted travel restrictions, and got to see Roystonea growing in their
native environment the low, open, inland plains of that island. And they were
beautiful in that setting, looking very much at home, with the very large bird
the Cubans called  "Aura" (I wish I knew its scientific name) circling their
crowns. This taught me the lesson that all plants have a place on the planet
which is uniquely theirs and thus there are no ugly plants, only plants which we
may have only seen out of context far from their homes.

Deborah
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