The Seven Fan Palms of Palácio de Cristal

The building these palms were planted for was demolished in 1951. The palms are still standing. Seven Mexican fan palms line the Avenida das Tílias in the gardens of the Palácio de Cristal, and they date to the planting that went in around the international exhibition of 1865, the event the crystal palace itself was built for. That building came down after eighty-six years and was replaced by the domed pavilion sitting there now. The palms carried on and reach almost 25 metres. Washingtonia robusta is from northwest Mexico and puts up a slender grey trunk far faster than most palms, topped with a crown of stiff fan-shaped leaves that clatter in wind. Seven of them in a line, all the same age, is an unusual survival. Palms at that height tend to go in storms or in redevelopment, and these have sat through both. They were classified in 2019. The register carries the classification and an age of 150 years at its 2015 measurement, roughly 160 now, which matches the exhibition-era planting. It carries no measurements at all for this entry, so the heights here come from an independent account of the gardens rather than from the state. The gardens are free and busy, and the peacocks have the run of them.