Stalking the Endangered Wax Palm

In addition to their tremendous height, the fronds at the top of the wax palm have a distinctive, overlapping X appearance that is very appealing. Beautiful forests on steep slopes.

How many species and landscapes have been saved by the inability of capitalism to reach their habitat?

Does the wax provide an insect barrier coating?

Beautiful indeed. Awesome they are. To see those palms rise and rise above the canopy of trees, slender, majestic, piercing the clouds is a sight not to forget. May the humanity find a way to preserve thus wonder..

I visited Colombia in March of this year, spending my birthday in Salento. I visited the wax palms, these stunning trees standing tall in the sky, then becoming lost in the mist. Beautiful valley, beautiful trees.

I enjoyed reading and learning more about these trees. I think publishing this article in Spanish is a great idea.

I walked and drove by these valleys in the early 70’s. It’s a miracle the Tochecito ones are still upright. Calling to our conscience for respect to their right to continue being there. Good article, why not publish it also in Spanish, as you’ve done recently with others that might be of interest to Latinos or nationals of the article’s subject area?

I saw these palms in the Corcora valley a few years ago. There were many tourists (in fact, there was a traffic jam). I wish them the very best of luck.

I live in Bogotá. I was in Cocora valley last September after taking in Salento coffee tours etc. They have an incredible botanical garden with amazing butterflies and carnivorous plants. You can see photos in my free travel app - NeilsTravels in both Google and apple. These palms are magnificent indeed. I highly recommend a visit here which as far as I know as far from FARC. I wish these young Europeans luck touring and cycling these areas. But reports indicate that post FARC - things are heating up again. It was very difficult to photograph these trees as they indeed are so tall. Luckily, I had a bright idea to use a selfie to take photos of the crown's just to show how tall they are.

This story rekindles my once-youthful enthusiasm for botanical exploration in the tropics.

Linnaeus named palms the princes of plants. The magnificent Royal Palm itself can reach 140 feet, but is dwarfed by these superb Wax Palms. I'm sure that if this valley can be preserved, tourists and palm-lovers will arrive and in the end bring more money than a gold mine would.

I saw the wax palm forest (in Spanish, palmas de cera) on the misty hills around Salento and Cocora in Quindio Department during a vacation in Colombia in 1995. They were spectacular, one of the highlights of a month-long trip. In those days of guerilla warfare and violent drug cartels, protection of endangered tree species was pretty far down the Colombian government's priority list. I hope that articles like this one can change that.

Good luck. Great story. But for a few lucky breaks the living relict Gingko biloba would be lost in the fossil record. Having disappeared from it's Chinese stronghold. They can be found worldwide. Botanical realm diverse hotspots generally don't correlate with zoogeographical ones. But the big charismatic plants and animals always take the spotlight. Tropical rainforests are characterized by immense diversity and low sparse frequency. Temperate forests tend to follow the opposite pattern. But the Cape African botanical realm resembles the tropical rainforest despite it's xeric dry conditions. It is very old and very stable. There is a palm tree living in a Chicago Public Park greenhouse from Brazil that can't be located in the wild. The greenhouse suffered a catastrophe when it lost heat during a particular brutal winter. But that tree was not one of the casualties.

Two Hundred feet tall, two hundred years old and it can take decades for them to show signs of decay even after they have reached the end of their lifespan. The images of them rising a hundred plus feet above the hundred foot understory astound the eye. The oldest of them starting growing around the same time as the writing of our Constitution. The largest known remaining stand of them in the Tochecito Basin is in the hands of a dozen or so private owners. Without such contiguous forested areas their fate is in seriously endangered. It would take the cooperation of these landowners, the government of Columbia and 20 million or so dollars to preserve this habitat for the trees and the lifeforms that depend upon them. In competition with them, cattle, pigs and large mining interests from outside Columbia seeking gold. Those lobbying interests currently have more sway with the government than the trees. The battle for land use rights and mineral extraction may spell doom for a species that requires 200 years to reach full maturity. Anybody got a 20 million lying around out there needing a good cause to go after? Give Dr. Bernal a call.