How do really tall, skinny palm trees not fall over during a windy storm?
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Three key factors.
First, the roots surround the palm’s bulb and are typically twice as wide as the canopy, making a massive net under the palm.
Second, the canopy of fronds sways through the storm, but is mostly air – that is, flexible branches and the frond itself let’s air flow through it, like a pennant
Lastly, the trunk or stipe is very flexible. I mean, it seems hard if you have a hammock on it, but in a storm, like a blade of grass, the palm flexes and bends with the wind
So a palm is more like a flexible pvc flagpole with a bunch of pennants at the top and stuck through a solid net of roots holding it, and often the sand around it, like a concrete block base
Sometimes they do. But you will notice that palm trees are not just long trunks, but they are bare trunks.
There are not a lot of branches with a lot of leaves on them, it is just a huge trunk with a tuft of leaves at the top.
This was an adaptation for heavy winds that occur often in tropical areas, allowing the wind to move around the trunk without being pushed too hard.
If you take a nice full fir tree or a thick leafy apple tree, the needles and leaves would catch the wind and pull the whole tree over, while the palm tree only gets that top part torn apart.
So, when you go to a tropical area after a hurricane, you see a lot of fallen palm leaves and branches, but not a lot of fallen logs.
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Palm trees evolved to survive hurricanes.
It has a very narrow profile for its trunk and it doesn’t have branches that can act as additional sails to catch the wind. The trunk is bendy rather than stiff so it’s not likely to “snap.” It also has deep and shallow roots extending over a large area to anchor itself even in sandy soil.
They’re extra bendy, so the healthy ones sway with the wind instead of being knocked over, sometimes even down to the ground and back up again.
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