The Canary Palm of Fota

A palm tree growing outdoors on an island in Cork Harbour, at the same latitude as Newfoundland, is the clearest single demonstration of what the Gulf Stream does for this stretch of Irish coast. Phoenix canariensis comes from the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, and it tolerates an occasional light frost but nothing like an ordinary Irish winter further from the sea. Fota's frost-free microclimate, the same one that let the Smith-Barry family plant camphor trees and holm oaks here across three generations from the 1820s, is the only reason this specimen has a trunk at all rather than having died back to the roots decades ago. The national heritage tree survey bands it to 100 to 150 years old, which for a palm growing this far outside its comfort zone is a genuinely long survival. A mature specimen carries a crown of stiff, grey-green fronds up to six metres long, and the trunk thickens with a diamond pattern of old leaf-base scars that never smooths out. The register is the only source describing it. If you know when it was planted, tell us.