Palms as houseplants with a difference

La Gomera is home to the largest number of the endemic Canarian palm tree (Phoenix Canariensis)  in the archipelago and the species is protected and cherished. More than 100.000 specimens have been counted on La Gomera and they are also a source of income for local farmers. From animal fodder, basket making, etc., to the the famous sweet ''palm honey'' (miel de palma), they play an important part in our economy. Palm honey is not bee's honey, but the syrup obtained by first cutting the crown of the palm tree, then collecting the sweet and watery sap (called 'guarapo') that rises up the trunk and further boiling the sap down to a syrupy consistency to obtain the 'honey'. This liquid is delicious, full of minerals etc., and highly valued. A Canarian palm tree may be exploited in this way only once every five years without doing damage. Read more about palm honey here...

Palm trees may not be cut down for any reason without a permit that is almost impossible to obtain, as they are a protected species. So what do you do when you want to build a house or an extension to an existing one when there is a Canarian palm in the way ? The simple answer is you just build around it and leave the tree trunk as a feature, or as a convenient clothes hanger stand, inside your house. The gap you have to leave in the roof is usually sealed with an old truck tyre's inner tube which fits the trunk neatly and allows it to expand. 

When I first came to La Gomera I lived in a house for a while where a palm tree grew  through the centre of the kitchen with frying pans and other utensils neatly dangling off hooks screwed into the trunk. The floor was tiled right up close to the base of it as Canarian palms have a vastly spread network of relatively small roots and the palm doesn't mind being encased as long as it can spread below the foundations. There was an opening in the tiling where you could pour in some of your waste water to give it a drink.

There are a good few examples of this 'symbiosis' all over La Gomera island. Above and below are images from just below La Calerea on the main road to La Playa,  Valle Gran Rey, where a palm is neatly integrated into a building. Also note that when this road was widened some years ago all the existing palm trees had to be accommodated and new ones were planted, too: