Seeing them for the first time was genuinely surprising for me, and it made me feel so warm inside. It felt like a small piece of a tropical paradise. Immediately after seeing the palms, though, I began to question what I thought I knew about London’s climate. The sight of all these palm trees was so intriguing and made me so curious to understand the history behind the palms, and how they managed to make a home in such an unexpected habitat. Why they would grow in a place like London, but not New York?
I have learned that these palm trees are intentionally planted by people here and are not native to the UK; so every single one I have seen, whether it was in a park or garden was planted by someone. The common palm tree that is planted here, the Chusan Palm, originated from parts of Asia and is actually adapted to cope with the cold. This plant thrives in places such as London because of its unique adaptation to this microclimate. The reason we see them in a place like London, and not New York, is because although both cities can be cold, New York’s continental climate allows for very severe arctic blasts that freeze the solid ground for long periods of time. These palms would simply not survive those conditions.
Although the trees have a classic tropical look, their biggest threat is not a typical London winter, but an unusually severe and extended cold snap, which in the end would damage and kill those palms. Over the years, however, the weather in London has apparently gotten milder, which means that the trees have become more resilient, making them even more common in London.
