Palm Plant Growth

• While colloquially called palm trees, palms are not true trees because they lack bark and a growth layer in the trunk called cambium. Palms do not heal any wounds to their trunk or stems, unlike trees. Any cutting wound creating by a chainsaw on the trunk of a palm creates a permanent wound where insect pests or diseases may gain access to the internal vascular system. Palms also only grow from their stem or trunk tips. Damage or remove the growing tip, and no new replacement sprout develops atop that trunk.