They came from far and wide, arriving in the mid-1960s and apparently loving the place. Brought to you by landscape gardener Roberto Burle Marx to create the enormous green mosaic of Parque do Flamingo, the Taliput palms are tall, enchanting trees surrounded by a certain aura of mystery: they bloom only once and only when they reach the end of their life cycle, which lasts between 50 and 70 years. It’s rare and beautiful. So it’s no surprise that social media has been taken over by photos and videos of three specimens of Corypha umbraculifera that have been displaying their blooms in a landfill for days.
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The scientific name for this species – native to southern India and Sri Lanka – gave Tallibot another name by which it is known here: coryfa. Naturally, the specimens in Flamingo Park are more likely to be photographed. But they are not the only flowers in town. In the botanical garden, two other palm trees are also blooming.
“Flower explosion”
– They are in harmony. The seedlings were probably brought at the same age and planted at the same time. They are like sisters: they grew up together and reached flowering age at the same time, explains researcher Marcos Nadroz, living collection coordinator at the Rio Botanical Garden.
From then on, the plant enters the senescence period, which can be translated as the natural process of heading towards death, which still takes one to two years to complete.
– This is the last act they perform in order to survive as a species. One explanation is that to achieve this explosion of flowering and fruiting, a huge amount of energy is accumulated over all these years, which is spent simultaneously on the production of about 25 million flowers and almost the same number of fruits – explains Nadroz, who is witnessing the flowering of palm trees in the Botanical Garden for the first time in 42 years. – When I got there, the plants must have been about 30 years old, so it was new to me, which is interesting because people say: “Great, but now they’re going to die.” Yes, but on the other hand, it produces its own offspring.
The researcher says that work will be done to produce seedlings of the fruits to replace the specimens in the botanical garden and make others available for planting in squares and other public places.
If this moment is unprecedented in the Botanical Garden so far, the same cannot be said for Parque do Flamengo, where the number of seedlings planted was much greater: the taliput is part of a collection of 50 species of palm trees planted in the area, with a total of 4,400 seedlings. The first record of blooms occurred in August 1992, when one opened its golden fan – or was it a crown? – In the section between the Museum of Modern Art and the Brasinhas Monument.
– Maybe it was a sapling that was brought over when it was a little older – Marcus Nadroz thinks.
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This first flower to bloom gave Burle Marx the opportunity to witness this rare moment in Rio de Janeiro.
—There is an interesting element of generosity on the part of Burle Marx. Thinking that a person planted, expected, planned a space for many, democratic, but he could choose to plant a tree, in theory, he would not have the opportunity to see flowering, but he did it. It bloomed ahead of schedule, so he had the opportunity to see and celebrate one of the flowering plants – this is what Isabella Uno, Executive Director of the Burle Marx Institute, said in an interview with GLOBO conducted in October on the occasion of the 60th anniversary celebrations of Parque do Flamingo.
In Rio, specimens of taliput palm trees remain in Sitio Roberto Burle Marx, in Barra de Guaratiba. Anyone visiting Inhotim, in the city of Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerais, may also encounter palm trees as part of the landscape surrounding the gallery of artist Adriana Varejao from Rio.