From hurricanes to monsoons, why don't palm trees blow over?
The storm was far away, but the footage seemed close to home. As Hurricane Irma pounded Florida, many palm trees bent, but did not break.
Which reminded us how well they seem to hold up here in Arizona during the monsoon. How do they do that? Are their roots wide or deep?
The answer is both.
CLAY THOMPSON:Palm trees tend to bend, not fall, in the wind
"Palm trees have a pretty big root structure, believe it or not, even some of the small ones. They get pushed around by the monsoon winds, but it’s really hard to uproot one of those suckers,” said Jeff Pavone, a sales associate at Summer Winds Nursery in Phoenix.
How deep are a palms roots?
Palm trees have hundreds of "spaghetti roots," said Gary Peterson, manager at Phoenix Trim-A-Tree, which grow in a root ball.
"They don't have roots like a normal tree," Peterson said. They may be a foot to five feet long. There is no tap root.
"It all depends on the maturity of the tree."
Do palms bend easier than other trees?
Palm trees are very elastic.
They are fibrous, and fairly wet on the inside, which allows them to bend easily in the wind.
A low-profile helps, too
Palms trees don't have a big profile on top, either. The wind cuts through their leaves. Palo verde and mesquite trees have big, full canopies that can catch the wind.
"Those canopies almost act as sails,” Pavone said.
MORE:Are palm trees native to Arizona?
Mexican palms are resilient to this climate, and have evolved to handle annual monsoons.
"They’re really used to this," Pavone said. "This is the climate that they grow in so they can take these winds."
What tends to fare worse in wind?
The trees that tend to do the worst are trees that have been recently planted, trees that have been staked and have had stakes removed, and trees that have not been properly pruned.
“Anything with a bigger canopy is going have more trouble,” Pavone said.
READ MORE:
Arizona monsoon: Which parts of the Phoenix area get the most rain?