Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a botanical garden of 120.000 m2located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, capital city of the Western Canary Islands, specialized in palms (Arecaceae)and divided in biogeographical sections. The project was started in 1996 with funding from the European Union and the city of Santa Cruz. The building site was a former landfill of urban garbage bordering the sea. The hill was landscaped under the direction of the agronomist Manuel Caballero Ruano, the biologist Carlo Morici and the garden designer Carlos Simón. The park includes a large system of waterfalls, streams and ponds, an ethnographical museum dedicated to palms, with offices and labs and a shadehouse called the octagon.The project was paralysed for lack of funding in the 2000 and never opened to the public. A large palm collection is still maintained while it waits for further developments.

Living collections

Above 300 palm species still constitute a reference palm collection with many uncommon species. 72 of the represented taxa are included in the IUCN red list.The collection focuses on palms from islands and the biogeographical section dedicated to the Caribbean is the largest, spreading over an area of 50.000 m2. The collection of the Caribbean palm genera "Thrinax", "Coccothrinax" and "Hemithrinax" are among the most complete in the world.

Some taxa are grown in sufficient number to allow ex situ seed production of IUCN species. An outstanding case is "Coccothrinax borhidiana" O. Muñiz, which is a slow and Critically Endangered species according to IUCN and is represented in the botanic gardens by 17 ten-year-old specimens planted in the Caribbean section and a few more in pots.

= Collection overview =

- Total number of taxa: 720. - Total number of specimens: 2.600 (approx.)

- Most represented Families:

Arecaceae: (304 taxa), Bromeliaceae (89), Agavaceae (23), Moraceae (21), Pandanaceae (10), Mimosaceae (14), Zamiaceae (12)

- Most represented Genera of Arecaceae:

Coccothrinax (45 taxa), Chamaedorea (18), Dypsis (12), Copernicia (11), Livistona (11), Pritchardia (11), Syagrus (12), Arenga (10).

External links

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, article published in PALMS, the journal of the International Palm Society [http://www.palms.org/palmsjournal/2001/palmetum.htm]

History and pictures of the palmetum in PACSOA [http://www.pacsoa.org.au/places/SantaCruz/index.html]