The Blue Palm of the Botanical Garden

Two official Italian registers record this palm under a name that has since gone out of use. Both call it Brahea roezlii, 1.9 metres round and 4 metres tall, but Kew's own taxonomic database now treats roezlii as an old synonym rather than a separate species, folded into Brahea armata decades ago. The garden's own palm collection page agrees with Kew: it lists only armata and Brahea edulis among its blue Mexican palms, roezlii nowhere to be found. Brahea armata is native to the limestone canyons of Baja California, prized in cultivation for the powdery blue-grey wax on its fronds, thick enough to rub off on a hand. It grows slowly and stays compact, which explains four metres of height after however many decades it has had. The garden is free to enter but keeps university hours, weekdays only and closed on public holidays. If a label on site still reads roezlii, that is the register's own name catching up with the plant rather than a second opinion.