Even Palms Celebrate
‘Tis the season… even for palm trees.
Christmas Palm
The Christmas Palm (scientific name Veitchia merrillii) gets its name from the green oval-shaped fruit that turns bright red in December. Nature creates its own Christmas ornaments with a non-electric holiday display.
Holly… Sort Of
Another Florida plant with the traditional holiday red and green is the Brazilian Pepper Tree which is called Florida Holly. It has red berries in December.
Brazilian Pepper Tree aka Florida Holly
The Brazilian Pepper Tree (scientific name Schinus terebinthifolius) is an invasive species in Florida. It belongs to the same family as poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. After moving to Florida, I found out early on that this plant and I could not be anywhere near each other. Just touching the leaves of this tree causes me serious skin irritation. When the tree blooms, I have major allergy issues.
Floridians who have no reaction to the Brazilian Pepper tree use the foliage and berries as decorations at this time of the year.
I Like Non-Electric
While running errands this week, I passed quite a few homes that were celebrating the season with ornaments and decorations that do not require electricity.
Bottle Palm
They are just as festive in the day time as most light displays are when it is dark.
Photo gallery of holiday decorations.
Click on any picture to make it larger, then click on the right or left side of the image to move through the gallery.
Tags: Bottle Palm · Brazilian Pepper Tree · Christmas Ornaments · Christmas Palms · Florida Holly3 Comments
Looks like some pretty good ideas for the south land!
kindly advise the availaibility,price and feasibility of plant veitchia merrillii(christmas palm) to me.i just want to have such palm in my garden at ludhiana punjab. whether it well survive or not due to climatic conditions.
Hello, Naveen.
I’m sorry I can’t be of much help with the price and availability of this palm tree. I do not sell trees or plants. I just write about them.
However, I can share a couple of websites that will give you a lot of information about climate, water and general growing information for the Christmas palm. Hopefully, they will help you to determine whether it will grow where you live.
http://adonidiamerrillii.com/
http://myfolia.com/plants/2616-christmas-palm-tree-veitchia-merrillii
Good luck with the search for your tree.