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The Palms of Orange

Tree Talk by Stan Binnie

Back in 1887, the main street of the village of Coronado was planted with orange trees—thus the name Orange Avenue. Within a very few years the orange trees were dying. Jack rabbits had gnawed the bark from the trunks; furthermore, citrus trees are not well adapted to coastal conditions. The orange trees were replaced with palms, but the street name stuck.

There are two major types of palms—those with feather-like leaves and those with fan-like leaves. Most of the palms on Orange Avenue fall into the feather group.

The two most common palms on Orange Avenue are the King Palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamia) and the Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana). The King Palm is native to Australia while the Queen Palm originates from Brazil.

They are quite similar in appearance—both have clusters of 8 to 10 foot-long leaves attached at the top of the tree. There are, however, some subtle differences. The area where old leaves come off the King Palm (called the crown shaft) is about three feet long, smooth and dark green. During the growing season prominent foot- long clusters of lavender-colored flowers hang down from the base of the crown shaft.

The Queen Palm has a cluster of old leaf bases at the top that resembles a crown. The leaves of the Queen Palm are somewhat longer and the exceptionally straight trunk usually does not bulge out as much at the base as the King Palm. Clusters of cream-colored flowers are produced on three-foot long stalks, originating from the bases of the leaves. Showy clusters of date-like fruit follow the flowers. The fruit ripens to an orange color before dropping off. These fruit clusters are normally pruned from the trees along Orange Avenue to reduce litter on the sidewalks.

Although palms do not provide much in the way of shade, they do produce that quintessential “Southern California” look to downtown Coronado.

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Reprinted with permission from Coronado Lifestyle, "the little magazine with the BIG impact."
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