On Saturday 26th September 2015 among the activities held to mark?the Full Moon, organized by La Sociedad de Desarrollo de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Society for the Development of the City) for the first time we offered guided nocturnal tours at the Palmetum de Santa Cruz. It was a unique opportunity to enjoy our botanical garden in a way we have never seen before and we also had the luck to enjoy the first blooming of our Gigasiphon humblotianum, a rare species considered one of the jewels of the Palmetum.
Photo by Jesus Vera
Gigasiphon humblotianum (Baill.) Drake is a small tree in the family Fabaceae, native to the rainforest in the North of Madagascar. You may find yourself familiar with the shape of its flowers because it is a close relative of bauhinias, commonly planted as ornamental trees in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Its flowers are shaped with long tube where its name comes from (gigas = giant, and siphon= tube). They open at night, shortly after dusk, revealing a magnificent and fragrant white and yellow flowers, about 20 cm wide. Petals shed at sunrise, leaving a blanket of fragrant white petals at his feet.
Few specimens exist in cultivation, in addition to those found in its habitat in Madagascar. We are particularly proud to have this tree in the Palmetum of Santa Cruz and we really enjoyed its first blooms during tonight’s Full Moon.
PLENILUNIO IN PALMETUM
We started the morning with the exhibition “Life before the trees” by the Department of Didactic Specific (ULL) and Cienciaull where we could enjoy various activities related to science: a varied exhibition of fossils from different types of logs and plants , fun games of chemistry science approached the little ones to science along with interesting explanations about the existence of volcanoes on other planets and satellites.
Our friends of Radio Cadena Canarias, Jeremiah Rodriguez, Alexis Castillo and Maria Rodriguez, broadcasted live his “En Ruta” program from Plaza del Caribe.
Photo by Alexis Castillo
At 19:00 Tai Chi School “CLUB DEPORTIVO DE WUSHU TIANG CHUANG” students performed in front of the Caribbean Waterfall, where they gathered a big audience, marveling us with the plasticity and beauty of this Chinese sport/martial art, which has proved to enhance both physically and mentally those who practice it.
Throughout the day we offered free of charge guided tours for more than 250 visitors who traveled the most interesting parts of Palmetum accompanied by our staff and culminating in the aforementioned nocturnal visits for the first time in our botanical garden history.
Photo by Armando Brito
We would like to thank them all for taking part on this event and we hope to welcome you again in future activities at Palmetum.