The palm has long, drooping fronds.- A shot befor the storm, with two seed clusters left and right and a new one just flowering in the center.
- A few days later, they are felled by the 90+ mile an hour winds.
- We will replant and regrow them in the months ahead.
- When they flower, it is a spectacle, loved by the bees.
- The green pods open up to reveal the yellow flowers, eich with pollen.
- A pile of spent flowers, probably 10 gallons in volume for each pod!
- The flowers before opening. This cluster is 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide.
- Finally ,the seeds develop looking like large grapes.
Today we say aloha to two amazing trees, mature Sugar Palms (Arenga pinnata) that towered near Rishi from the Himalayas for some 32 years. They were called (by us) “the world’s most overachieving palm tree.” And for good reason, several times a year they would produce massive clusters of seeds, tens of thousands of seeds the size of large grapes. The clusters, sometimes six at once hanging from the trunk, weighed 300 pounds each, or more. No other palm we have produces such abundant seeds, not even close.
They lived a good life, looking down at Rishi’s black granite murti and able to see Bodhinatha’s murti across the pond. A life well lived. Let us all live such that we can say the same, and live with pure detachment so anything can come to us, even calamity, and we will remain centered, unchanged, trusting in Siva’s Dance.