Uncovered: Chilean Wine Palm

Underneath the plastic wraps is the Chilean Wine Palm, the Jubaea chilensis. In the Botanical Garden of Georgia in Tbilisi, the palm tree is being carefully cultivated and fertilized.

This is a young palm of the colossal species of pam that has the thickest trunk of any known palm species – at about 6 feet in diameter (1.8 metres). Native to the foothills of the Andes Mountains in central Chile, this palm grows to 60 feet (18 metres). It can take many decades to reach that height. Consequently, it has become one of the most expensive palm trees to buy.

The trunks of the Jubaea chilensis are nearly smooth. The crown is wider than it is tall and seems to have most of the leaves pointing upwards giving it a V-shape. The leaves of the Chilean Wine Palm are about ten to twelve feet long (3.0-3.6 metres) with a very short petiole (bare stem), making the central portion of the crown very thick with leaflets.

Jubaea chilensis is a monoecious species, meaning that one tree has both male and female flowers and can make fertile seeds without the assistance of another tree nearby.

When mature, they form a tight cluster of yellow coloured fruit.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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