Palm tree
๐ In short
Palms are a big family of trees and shrubs that love hot weather. Most have a tall trunk with no branches and a crown of big feather- or fan-shaped leaves at the top. Palms include the date palm, the coconut palm and the oil palm.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- Palm stems range from a few centimeters to more than 30 meters tall.
- Fossils of palm leaves from the time of the dinosaurs have been found.
- A palm trunk is usually between 10 and 60 centimeters thick.
- There are thousands of kinds of palms.
๐ Find out more
๐ Feather and fan leaves
Some palms have long leaves like big feathers, like the date palm and the coconut, and some have round leaves like an open fan.
๐ A treasure for people
Palms are an important source of food and materials in hot countries: dates, coconuts and palm oil come from them, and people make roofs, mats, baskets and rope from their leaves and trunks.
๐ก Palms everywhere
Palms grow in Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands, Africa, hot parts of America and Arabia. Some kinds even grow in southern Europe.
๐ฏ The oil palm
Palm oil is pressed from the fruit of the oil palm and is used in lots of foods and soaps. But huge plantations have led people to cut down forests, so we must be careful.
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 Which of these is a palm?
2 Where do palms like to grow?
3 Palm stems range from a few centimeters to more than ?? meters tall.
4 Which picture shows โPalm treeโ?
๐ณ Discover more
๐ท Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons
- Kskhh ยท CC BY-SA 4.0
