Tequesta : Number - 50/1990 - FIU Digital Collections

34 TEQUESTA
In the early 1950s, Hal Moore returned from Cuba with seeds he had
collected from a rare palm growing at Harvard University's Atkins
Garden near Cienfuegos. We planted several seeds and grew a fine
specimen near a comer of our bedroom. With its several slender green
trunks resembling large bamboo, this cluster palm grew to 20 feet. The
origin of this mysterious palm was never solved. No one, including Hal,
was able to find it growing wild in any part of the world, nor was it
mentioned in botanical literature. Many years ago a ship's physician, a
Dr. Cabada, collected the seeds while on a voyage - to Madagascar,
Hal believed. At the time of Cabada's death a fruiting specimen grew
in his garden at Cienfuegos. The garden was neglected, however, and
the palm might have been lost except for the interest of Robert M. Grey,
director of Atkins Garden, who collected seeds from the unidentified
species and planted them. Hal immediately recognized the palm as
being in the genus Chrysalidocarpus, but the species was as much a
mystery to him as it had been to Grey. Hal waited 10 years to describe
the palm as a new species and give it a name, hoping that someone in
the meantime would discover its nativity. Meanwhile the palm was
widely planted in South Florida as the "Cabada palm." When Hal finally
gave it a botanical name, he honored the physician who introduced it to
cultivation by calling it Chrysalidocarpus cabadae. Unfortunately the
Cabada palm proved susceptible to the lethal yellow disease, which
wiped out most of the common coconuts of South Florida and a number
of other palms. We lost our beautiful Cabada palm along with all our
coconuts except the Malay variety which is resistant to the disease.
One of our favorite small palms was the native Thrinaxfloridana,
which grows abundantly in South Florida, the Bahamas and the West
Indies. It is well adapted to limestone soil and to the warmer coastal
areas and the keys. Once established, it requires no further attention--
no sprays for insects or diseases and no irrigation during the dry season.
Its growth is slow; but in its early years it makes an excellent screen; and
you are reluctant to see it grow taller, raising new fan-shaped leaves
above the screening level as older lower leaves die.
Bahama plants are particularly well adapted to South Florida because
the soil and the climate of the two areas are similar. I grew 20 species
of Bahama plants at Montgomery Drive, most of them collected by Dr.
John Popenoe, who succeeded me as director of the Fairchild Garden.
Once a Bahama plant is thoroughly established, it requires no further
care, except a little fertilizer from time to time to promote growth.