WEBVTT - Palm Trees: Technically, Giant Plants 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.800 Hello, everybody. It's your old pals Josh and Chuck, and 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:05.840 you will have the chance to see us live in 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.840 person for the first time in two years, Friday, January 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.959 twenty one in San Francisco. Right, Chuck, that's right, we're 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.160 returning to the stage at Sketch Fest. We're very excited 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.360 about it. We can't wait to see everyone. It is 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.200 a VACS only show. Bring your backscard. It is a 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.960 mask only show. Bring that mask. Can't wait to see 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.960 a third of your faces. That's right. You can get 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.760 tickets at s F sketch Fest dot com and again Friday, 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:36.000 January one, thirty pm Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco, California. 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.680 We will see you there. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:50.239 a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to the podcast. 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.280 I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles w Chuck Chuck, Chuck 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.000 A Luck Bryant. This is gonna be a good one. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.480 I can tell by your nickname, Chuck. And this is 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:04.000 Stuff you should know the podcast the podcast. Oh nice? 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.040 Was that off the cuff? Do you have a written 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.280 on your nose? It was off the cuff And that's 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.080 probably about as funny as this one's gonna get. There's 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.200 not a lot of room for jokes in here. But 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.880 but Chuck, this is the topic that I didn't know. 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.039 I wanted to know more about. Oh really, I had 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.560 no idea when you when you when you threw out 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:31.039 palm trees palms, I genuinely was puzzled. I'm like, I 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.920 have to know what what triggered that, because it's not 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.360 something that you're walking around. I live around palm trees 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.399 all the time. They're all over the place and I've 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.640 never stopped and being like, we should do an episode 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.679 on palm trees. So what what caused that? Uh? I 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.440 thought I told you no. No. So then this is 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.320 very true is I went to Los Angeles to go 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.240 to a sales dinner, as you know. Uh, and so 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.640 they were bringing a bunch of new sales people on 0:01:57.680 --> 0:01:59.960 board at my heart, and they had a dinner because 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.240 they had not met in person, and they said, hey, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.880 let's get uh, let's get Chuck out here, because you know, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.280 Josh didn't want to go. Somebody said, what about Jostin, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.480 like just just just chuck believe it. No. I think 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:13.160 they just didn't bother because you would have been like, 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.720 are you serious, uh, just to come say hi and stuff. 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.880 And we were, you know, the sales people were picking 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:23.720 my brain and being inquisitive and saying, how do you 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:27.840 get your topics? How do you get your topics? And 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.480 I literally I said, you know, you just look at 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:31.920 the world around you and they come to you. And 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.800 I looked outside in Santa Monica and it said, like 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.000 palm Trees, that could be an episode, and they said, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.920 make it an episode. There's a great ad sales impression, 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.040 by the way, No, none of them talking like that. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.840 In fact, it's quite opposite. Ad sales people are very smooth. 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.880 Oh I'm guessing. So yeah, I mean they saw ads 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.560 for Pete's sake. Yeah, so they just said wow, really 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.400 and I said yeah, and in fact, I will do it, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.840 and I will dedicate this episode to ad sales. That's awesome. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.760 This is the episode that everybody wants to hear. The 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.799 episode on Palm Trees dedicated to ad sales. That's right. Well, no, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.720 they do a great job and they keep the show 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.480 nice and free for everybody. Oh that's right, man, that 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:14.720 is right. So hats off to the ad sales people. 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.800 This one's for you, guys. But that is how it 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.920 came about. It's just sort of an example of you 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.360 just sort of look around sometimes. And I lived in 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.280 l A for quite a few years, as you know, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.760 and I loved palm trees. I have a palm tree 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:29.359 in my backyard. And I was like, wait a minute, 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.880 there's a lot of different kinds and I wish I 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.760 knew more about them. And now I have a very 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:41.320 uh unfun podcast episode to do. I don't know, it's 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.600 fun and that it's super science. And there's a lot too. 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.200 There's a lot of stuff that most people don't know, 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.760 and we're gonna impart it to them in a approachable manner. Okay, Yeah, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.560 it wasn't as like exciting as I thought. Afterward, I 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.600 was kind of okay, well, you know what about poor 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.160 Dave Rugs, who helped us out with this one. I 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.840 think Dave enjoys the stuff. Okay, I hope. So so 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.240 we're talking palm trees, Charles, and did you know this, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.640 let's start with this. There are more than twenty different 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.640 species of palm trees. Did you know that when you 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.040 were wandering around l A. No, I knew there were 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.120 quite a few, but I thought, you know, dozens. Okay, 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.560 sit there, please continue to sit. Mhm. Did you know 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.920 that palm trees are in no way, shape or form? Actually, 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.000 I should take that back. They are not actually trees 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.599 as far as botanists are concerned. I definitely did not 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:40.640 know that. Very nice. And then lastly, Chuck, well, let's 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.760 say it. Really, those are the two big crazy facts. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:45.760 Palm trees are not trees. And that's a big one 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.520 because if you look at a palm tree, you say, no, 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.240 it's a tree. It's got bark, it's very tall, has 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.040 leaves kind of branch out from it. It's a it's 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.440 a treat. Don't be ridiculous. And um, again to a botanist, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.599 it's not a tree. And we're going to get very 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.600 very detailed into why it's not actually a tree. Um. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.440 But it helps if you to to understand this, if 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.360 you just step back and look at a palm tree, 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.360 even the tallest, biggest palm trees, those ones along Hollywood 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:21.120 Boulevard in that Morrissey video. Um that those are giant 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:28.960 plants and those aren't trunks, those are stems. Yeah, that's 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.160 that is pretty cool. And a botanist will sell you 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.600 that a uh, someone else not as hung up on 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.520 the botany might say, well, you know what, they function 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.440 as trees though, smarty, So take that fact and and 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.320 stick it where the sun don't shine. And then that's 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.000 kind of the end of that conversation because they just 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.520 got hostile. Well no, somebody comes in and says, peas, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:53.719 peas children. Let's put it like this. Both palms are upright, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:58.120 tree form plants, and everyone says, thank you, Happy International 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:03.560 Tolerance Day, everybody. That's right. But palms are closer categorically 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:08.280 speaking to grasses and grains like something like corn, than 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.839 it is that mighty oak. So again, it's just a tall, 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.680 giant plant, not a tree, a plant, And in fact, 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.120 giant is a really good way to put it, because 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.440 a lot of the growth patterns that um palms undertake 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.280 are are a form of gigantism. They're like plants on 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.479 steroids basically. So there you go. That's a good that's 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.720 some good groundwork for the whole thing. If you ask me, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:42.640 I think so, Uh, maybe we could start at angiosperms. Uh, 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.479 there are about three hundred thousand of those bad boys, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.400 and these are flowering plants, and I think a lot 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.560 of this stuff people. It may ring a bell to 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.840 like high school biology, because when I was going through it, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:55.360 I was like, wait a minute, I learned about this 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.320 many many years ago. Uh, and it's all kind of 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.640 coming back to me. But um angie sperms of those 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.400 flowering plants that have the seeds in case in the fruit, 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.599 and it's the largest group in the plant kingdom. And 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.640 within that you've got monocots and die cots, and palms 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:17.040 are monocots. And that's important because I mean, you can't 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.720 talk about palm trees without talking about the specificity of 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.920 like how they grow and how they how they operate. Yeah, 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.600 because they're in in those details lies why they're not trees, 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.320 why there's something else while they're basically gigantic plants. So 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.000 you said, palm trees are monocots. Die cots are what 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.400 we're used to when we look at a tree. Things 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.880 like elm trees, beach um, uh maple trees, all of 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.120 those are die cots, right. Um. And when you're looking 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.160 at like a pine tree or an evergreen, usually that's 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.840 a gymnasperm that's like a completely different kind of uh 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.960 plant altogether. It doesn't have its um seeds and a fruit. 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.440 It bears its seeds on like the outside of like 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.040 a cone or something totally different thing. We don't need 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.080 to talk about gymnasperms again. Instead, we're talking about monicots 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:08.320 and dicotts, both angiosperms. Right. Uh. And if you've ever 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.560 planted a little die coot seedling, the first thing you're 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.520 gonna notice when it when it pops up out of 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.120 the ground is you're gonna have to I think it's 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:22.600 called caddleadn. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, And you're gonna 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.840 see two of those, and it's very you know, that's 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.760 why it's called a die coot because there's two. A 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.800 monica like a palm, will only have one. Yeah, And 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.760 caddleadn is just the first leaves that come out of 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.120 a sprout. And so you've got two, and like you said, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.560 with the monicott, you've got one. That's a big difference. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.960 But that's surely not a big enough difference to be like, well, 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.800 palm is not even close to a tree. It's something 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:51.280 totally different. You're right, Yeah, it goes on, I guess, 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.200 is what I'm trying to say. The differences continue. It does. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:55.880 If you look at a dicott leave. If you take 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.200 like a a maple leaf or an oak tree leaf 0:08:58.200 --> 0:08:59.440 and you look at the back of it or at 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.000 the front, but can really get a good look at 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.560 the back or hold it up in the sun, you'll 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.959 see the little weblike pattern of veins coming off from 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.160 that central stem on a leaf. That's different on a 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.440 di coot, on a monocot, it does not do that. 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:19.280 They they run parallel. Veins do from stiff from like 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.840 rear to tip. That's your vein right there, just a tip. 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.840 There's also um. Die coots have something called a cambium layer. 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.240 And this is uh, this is really important to me. 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:36.040 This is the big differentiator between palm tree and a 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.320 die coott tree like a maple tree. Right, This is 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.200 the big difference is that palm trees don't make wood 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.080 and die cott trees like a maple tree does. And 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.559 it does that because it has what's called secondary growth 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.880 where it has a bunch of cells xylem and flow 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.600 them cells which are vascular tissues, and they line up 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.719 in a circle and they form a ring in this 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.000 nice tight pattern and they grow outward and outward and outward. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.920 It every year, so that if you cut a tree 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.520 down and look at the stump that's left. You see rings, 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.520 and those rings are annual growth of spring would in 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.920 autumn wood. But the upshot is is it's actually growing 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:15.080 would every year. As the tree grows outward, it gains girth, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.959 and that is secondary growth. And the big distinction between 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.400 monocots and i coots is that monocots don't have secondary growth. 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.280 They don't grow like that. They don't grow outward, they 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:31.280 grow upward. That's a huge distinction. Yeah, and this is 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:36.439 where you know it can get a little word parsi um. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:41.760 Monocots generally do not have secondary growth. Palm trees do 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.280 have a kind of secondary growth, but it's not real 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.320 secondary growth. I think it's what's the what's the word 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.400 for it? Uh, anomalous secondary growth is that the one? Yeah, 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.720 anomalous secondary growth. So, like every plan has primary growth. 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:00.880 If you go and you shouldn't do this because it's 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.640 bad for the tree. But if you went and carved 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.440 your name into a mighty oak, that that's not gonna 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.240 grow up, that's not gonna be ten feet above your 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.760 head in thirty years because that tree is going outward. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.520 A palm tree like you said, it grows from the top. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.680 So when you see a palm, you're gonna generally see 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.720 those palm fronds sticking out of the top of it. 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.480 And if you say, yeah, but there's some underneath it too, 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.280 those are just fronts that haven't fallen off yet on 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.319 the way up right exactly. So another way to put 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.280 it is that palm trees grow up. They don't grow 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:39.960 out right, but they do have girth yea in some cases, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:45.120 I know, girth just the tip growing would good lord, 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.080 oh man, the ad sales people are blushing. Who saw 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.000 this coming? So, yeah, they do have girth, um, but 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.120 they have girth for a totally different reason. And and like, yeah, 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:56.520 you can look at a palm tree and be like, yeah, 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.920 it's a huge, it's thick, it's that's a trunk. But 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.360 some of them are really too. Yeah. I think the 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.240 biggest one gets to like three feet in diameter. That's 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.640 a big old trunk. But the thing is, if you 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:08.800 cut a palm tree down and you look down inside 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.760 of it, you're not gonna see neat pattern of tight 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.600 rings of those axylum and flow them cells. They do 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.360 have xylum and flow them cells because those are um 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:21.160 vascular cells. They carry water, minerals, sugars throughout the plant. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.920 So all all plants and trees have xylum and flow 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.160 them cells. But in a in a a monocot, like 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.080 a palm tree, they grow just kind of willy nilly, 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.959 and they grow upward. What gives the palm tree it's 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.840 girth is when those vascular cells themselves grow in size. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.559 So you've got more vascular cells growing up through the plant, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.559 through the stem of the plant, which you think is 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.319 a trunk. You have more of them, and then they 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:49.240 increase in size. That actually increases the girth of the stem. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:54.360 But the stem itself is not growing outward. It's not laying, 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.600 it's not adding layers of growth outward because that would 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.360 be secondary growth, and and monocott ston't engage in secondary growth. 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.000 That's right. And the other really cool thing about a 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.920 palm is is and one of the things that uh 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.000 separates monocots from di coots is that monocots don't have 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.680 that central tap root. So if you, uh, if a 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.000 storm came along and pulled up a palm tree, you 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.160 would see where basically where the mom is about to 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.439 call it a trunk. Uh, we'll probably call it a 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.600 trunk here and there, but it is a stem where 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.800 the stem meets the ground. If it's uprooted, you'll just 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.640 see just a spider web of smaller roots. It doesn't 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.280 have this big, one central tap root from which the 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.920 other roots go. It comes straight from the base of 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:42.320 that stem. That's right, And those are called um. I 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.800 think we'll get into a little bit later, but it's 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:49.000 called and votitious root growth, right, Yeah, which is not 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.559 super deep. I think the deepest you're gonna find is 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.880 maybe a few feet. Yeah, but they can really go out, yeah, 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.000 like fifty feet out from from the trunk in either direction. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.000 It's um. It's really something to see. But the problem 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.760 is that that also makes them often susceptible to being 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.720 blown over in hurricanes because they often grow along the coast. Yeah, 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.640 and if you if it's a shallow grounded area, you 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.920 can a lot of times you can see a lot 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.160 of that root system sort of sitting level with the ground. 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.480 It's neat in some kinds, I think, including um king palms, 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.560 maybe royal palms that are nice. They look like big 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.000 fat cigars growing out of the bottom of the of 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.880 the tree at the base. It's pretty cool looking. Take 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.680 a break. Oh man, you just you took the words 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.360 right out of my mouth. I think that's a good Uh, 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.440 it's a good teaser for the first part. Yeah, I 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.120 say we take a break and let the ad sales 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.520 people do their thing. Are they going to read the ads? 0:14:44.000 --> 0:15:10.160 We'll find out, Okay, okay, Chuck. So it turns out 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:12.760 the ad salespeople did not read the ads, but they 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:17.520 did sell them and appreciate one for that. So, um 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.120 palms are actually super duper old. Some of the oldest 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.200 plant fossils we've turned up, and by we, I mean 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:28.600 you and me specifically our palm um fraunds that are 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.280 upwards of seventy million years old um. But they think 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.240 that they're actually much older than that, because there's a 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.520 theory that palms are found all over the world because 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.360 they were growing on m Gondwana, which is part of 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.080 a super continent after Pangia started to break up. Gondwana 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.880 was one of the big massive pieces of of um 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.240 Earth that started to break up between hundred and eighty 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.680 and a hundred forty five million years ago, and they 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.480 think the palms were like goodbye family, goodbye. As the 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.520 as the land spread out informed the continence as we 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.880 know them today, and then started to do all sorts 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.000 of weird stuff as they evolved in isolation from one another. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.800 That's right, uh, and weird stuff meaning there can be 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.520 tiny palms that are about you know, five to eight 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.960 inches tall. There is and I encourage people to safely 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.720 look up some of these because it is pretty amazing 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.480 to see the variety. Like when you look up the 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.640 wax palm. Uh, these are the ones I think generally 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.400 found in South America that are so tall and skinny. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:31.840 I mean, you think the one some of those in 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.880 l A are tall and skinny, nothing compared to these 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.480 wax palms where you look at them and they just 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.040 seem to sort of defy gravity, and you wonder, how 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.480 are they not just snapping in a half constantly with wind. 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:48.920 It's uh um, anomalous secondary growth, that's the answer. But 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.520 those wax palms grow in the mountains in the andies. 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:53.360 So if you climbed up one of them, I think 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.520 they're up up to two feet tall, which is what 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.720 about seventy meters tall um, and you fell off the top, 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.200 it get even worse because you'd also be falling off 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.240 a mountain, so you don't want to climb a wax 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.159 palm unless you're just a dummy. That's right. Uh, those 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.959 stems that we talked about, the what most people might 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.399 call a trunk, Like we said earlier, they do very wildly. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.640 Some of them are very small, just a few millimeters, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.840 and then those, you know, I have different kinds that 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:22.760 are my favorites. But one of my favorites of those 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.120 really big thick stemmed ones that are sort of load 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.359 to the ground, very big around and have a big 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.840 um just sort of almost like a fireworks display of 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:38.240 blooms like a palmetto. Now not a palmetto palmettos. I 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.520 don't think you can really see the trunk very much, 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:46.639 can you. I saw palmetto? I think yeah. I think 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.359 they get tall after a while, they stay short and 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.040 then and then they achieve the correct girth and then 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.960 they grow longer. But I mean, there's twenty so I'm 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.520 sure there is a variety of something to suit your fancy, 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.680 you know what I mean. Yeah, that's exactly right. And 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.920 that one that grows only to be five inches tall 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.760 and has a stemmed just a few millimeters thick, that 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:13.000 one's called dipsis minuda um and it's pretty cut. That 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.040 was not planned by the Really, Yeah, I don't buy that. 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.560 I swear I will, I will photo copy. I'll scan 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.040 this page and send it to you and you will 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.080 not see it on there. Well, that's because you mean 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:28.720 is standing with a big Q card in front of you, right, 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.840 That's how I could get away with this, but you 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.639 figured me out. I can't. I think the one that 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.560 we have in our backyard is um a windmill palm, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:43.320 and we planted it when we first got to Atlanta. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.000 Emily worked as a producer on a TV commercial and 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.080 sometimes you might have noticed this a little bit with 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.560 the TV show. Sometimes there's things that you get for 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.240 a TV show or commercial or a movie that you 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:56.760 can't return or do anything with, and so at the 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:58.280 end of the job they'll be like, who wants this 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.000 whatever that we can't do anything with? And Emily said, oh, 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.960 we would love that palm tree. Uh. And it was 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.200 kind of small, and we planted it here in Atlanta 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.560 and it is really flourished. They are very easy to 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.200 take care of. You don't really don't do anything and 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:15.840 they have managed to uh. And this is kind of 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.320 one of the points of how robust they can be 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.680 even though they generally grow in the tropical areas around 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.240 the world. Uh, you know, this thing has had plenty 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:26.960 of snow on it and plenty of hard freezes in 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.720 Atlanta over the years, and it's just as healthy as 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.280 can be. Yeah. Now, there's some palms that can thrive 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.200 in zone five B I saw, which is like South 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.160 Nebraska and South Iowa. The needle palm does just fine there. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.040 So Jersey short palms that said, yeah it has like, um, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:50.520 like bleached orange spikes rather than green fronds. That wasn't 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.840 written down either. I like that one. Um. But yeah, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:59.000 it's just like plus species, they're gonna learn to adapt everywhere. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.240 And they've been around for hundreds of millions of years, 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.840 so they've actually gotten pretty good at doing things like 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.080 putting up with snow, which is surprising because again you 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:11.160 kind of associate the palms with like a tropical rainforest, 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.800 and for good reason, because they are found a lot 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.560 in tropical rainforests all throughout around you know, right above 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:21.440 and below the equator around the world. Um. Apparently in 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.280 the Amazon they make up six of all the trees 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.199 that you'll find there, so they're pretty successful as far 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:34.200 as um as far as plants go, gigantic plants, that's right. Uh. 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:36.120 Should we talk a little bit about what what makes 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.920 up a palm tree? We've talked a little bit about it. 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.880 You know, there are those roots that extend way way 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.879 out in a pretty shallow manner. Uh, there is that 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.160 elongated stem. And one thing you'll notice when you're looking 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:51.560 at a palm stem or if you want to go 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.159 up and hug one of those guys, is sometimes you 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.320 might get hurt. Uh. It is it doesn't have bark, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.720 it has the scars of of fronds it came before. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.480 And depending on what kind of tree that is, it 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.840 could be it can be kind of smooth, but usually 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.480 they're kind of rough, and sometimes they're they're really rough 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.440 and kind of uh pointing and spiky. Yeah, for sure, Um, 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:15.440 I think people kind of trim those kind back a 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.359 little bit. But um, I've all I was also reading 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.359 about over trimming them that you don't really want to. Um, 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:23.639 you don't want to trim them too much, and you 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.680 definitely don't want to trim any kind of palm frond 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:31.200 that isn't totally brown and crusty, musty, because if it's 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.240 not even if it's yellow, that means that there's still 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.720 a bunch of nutrient stores in there, just hanging out, 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.439 and the palm is like, hey, you just used up. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.959 You just took a lot of my energy away. So um, 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.280 you want them typically either fall off naturally like they do, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.159 or wait until they're just so brown and desiccated that 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:51.800 that even you can tell this this palm front can 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.000 be taken off without hurting the tree. But um, it's 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.080 pretty obvious. It is pretty obvious. But I thought was 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:02.080 really interesting is is um the idea that that's that's 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.919 not bark. Those are just like leaf remains, the remains 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:09.760 of basically where the leaf hit the tree at one time. 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.400 And it looks if you if you look, Dave points 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:15.880 us out, and I never really put it into words before, 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.600 but it's exactly true. It looks like the palm fronds 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.760