The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands , specifically an Indigenous people of Florida , who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River , at the head of Apalachee Bay , an area known as the Apalachee Province . They spoke a Muskogean language called Apalachee , which is now extinct .
74-577: The Apalachee occupied the site of Velda Mound starting about 1450 CE, but they had mostly abandoned it when Spanish started settlements in the 17th century. They first encountered Spanish explorers in 1528, when the Narváez expedition arrived. Their tribal enemies, European diseases, and European encroachment severely reduced their population. Warfare from 1701 to 1704 devastated the Apalachee, and they abandoned their homelands by 1704, fleeing north to
148-407: A clustering habit results. Exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans , Guihaia , and Rhapis . Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members. Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters and vice versa. Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately ('fan-leaved') or pinnately ('feather-leaved') compound and spirally arranged at the top of
222-829: A few Spanish soldiers, after several Apalachee and Timucuan missions had been raided. Only 300 warriors escaped the ambush. When Queen Anne's War (the North American theater of the War of Spanish Succession ) started in 1702, England and Spain were officially at war, and raids by English colonists and their Indian allies against the Spanish and the Mission Indians in Florida and southeastern Georgia accelerated. In early 1704, Carolina Militia Colonel James Moore of led 50 colonists and 1,000 Apalachicolas and other Creeks in
296-445: A game, and that fieldwork was being neglected during game season. Other missionaries (and the visiting Bishop of Cuba) had complained about the game, but most of the Spanish (including, initially, Father Pavia) liked it (and, most likely, the associated gambling). At least, they defended it as a custom that should not be disturbed, and that helped keep the Apalachee happy and willing to work in the fields. The Apalachee themselves said that
370-463: A large amount of the human diet and several other human uses, both by absolute amount produced and by number of species domesticated . This is far higher than almost any other plant family, sixth out of domesticated crops in the human diet, and first in total economic value produced – sharing the top spot with the Poaceae and Fabaceae . These human uses have also spread many Arecaceae species around
444-528: A park. Velda Mound was built in approximately 1450 by Fort Walton peoples and occupied by their descendants the Apalachee until about 1625. The Spanish explorers called this area Apalachee Province in recognition of the tribe's power, a territory which also included the Lake Jackson Mounds and major center of Anhaica . The platform mound is believed to have served as a residence for
518-460: A series of raids on Spanish missions in Florida . Some villages surrendered without a fight, while others were destroyed. Moore returned to Carolina with 1,300 Apalachees who had surrendered and another 1,000 taken as slaves. In mid-1704 another large Creek raid captured more missions and large numbers of Apalachees. In both raids missionaries and Christian Indians were tortured and murdered, sometimes by skinning them alive. These raids became known as
592-637: A variety of different habitats. Their diversity is highest in wet, lowland forests. South America , the Caribbean , and areas of the South Pacific and southern Asia are regions of concentration. Colombia may have the highest number of palm species in one country. There are some palms that are also native to desert areas such as the Arabian Peninsula and parts of northwestern Mexico. Only about 130 palm species naturally grow entirely beyond
666-476: A village leader, with a village surrounding the mound. The village inhabitants cultivated vegetables in small family plots and farmed large communal farming fields in the area around the village. They cultivated numerous varieties of maize , beans and squash . Velda Mound was abandoned by indigenous peoples by the beginning of the Spanish Mission Period (ca. 1565). This was most likely
740-615: A war chief and a peace chief. Leadership was hereditary and matrilinear . At the time of Hernando de Soto's visit in 1539 and 1540, the Apalachee capital was Anhaica (present-day Tallahassee, Florida ). The Apalachee lived in villages of various sizes, or on individual farmsteads of .5 acres (0.20 ha) or so. Smaller settlements might have a single earthwork mound and a few houses. Larger towns (50 to 100 houses) were chiefdoms . They were organized around earthwork mounds built over decades for ceremonial, religious and burial purposes. Villages and towns were often situated by lakes, as
814-609: A water source, and in desert oases such as the date palm . A few palms are adapted to extremely basic lime soils, while others are similarly adapted to extreme potassium deficiency and toxicity of heavy metals in serpentine soils . Palms are a monophyletic group of plants, meaning the group consists of a common ancestor and all its descendants. Extensive taxonomic research on palms began with botanist H.E. Moore , who organized palms into 15 major groups based mostly on general morphological characteristics. The following classification, proposed by N.W. Uhl and J. Dransfield in 1987,
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#1732765163157888-665: A year. The Red River band in Louisiana integrated with other Indian groups, and many eventually went west with the Muscogee. When Florida was transferred to Britain in 1763, several Apalachee families from mission San Joseph de Escambe , then living adjacent to the Spanish presidio of Pensacola in a community consisting of 120 Apalachee and Yamasee Indians, were moved to Veracruz , Mexico . Eighty-seven Indians living near St. Augustine, some of whom may have been descended from Apalachees, were taken to Guanabacoa , Cuba . In
962-618: Is a Native American archaeological site located in northern Tallahassee , Leon County , Florida, United States. The site was first occupied by peoples of the Fort Walton Culture (a regional variation of the Mississippian culture ) in the late prehistoric period and during the protohistoric period was part of the extensive Apalachee Province of the panhandle. The site is now owned by the State of Florida and managed as
1036-508: Is a revision of Moore's classification that organizes palms into 6 subfamilies. A few general traits of each subfamily are listed below. The Phytelephantoideae is the sixth subfamily of Arecaceae in N.W. Uhl and J. Dransfield's 1987 classification. Members of this group have distinct monopodial flower clusters. Other distinct features include a gynoecium with five to 10 joined carpels, and flowers with more than three parts per whorl. Fruits are multiple-seeded and have multiple parts. From
1110-605: Is from Dravidian *aṭ-ay-kkāy ("areca nut"). The suffix -aceae is the feminine plural of the Latin -āceus ("resembling"). Palm originates from Latin palma semantically overlapping with sense of " hand front " (due to similar splayed shape) ultimately from Proto-Indo-European * pl̥h₂meh₂ , a direct descendant folm once existed in Old English. Whether as shrubs, tree-like, or vines, palms have two methods of growth: solitary or clustered. The common representation
1184-638: Is now owned by the State of Florida. Arecaceae The Arecaceae ( / ˌ ær ə ˈ k eɪ s i . iː , - ˌ aɪ / ) is a family of perennial , flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales . Their growth form can be climbers , shrubs , tree -like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms . Those having a tree-like form are colloquially called palm trees . Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds , arranged at
1258-496: Is often called "anomalous secondary growth". The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, and inflorescences. Ceroxylon quindiuense , Colombia's national "tree", is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 metres (197 ft) tall. The coco de mer ( Lodoicea maldivica ) has the largest seeds of any plant, 40–50 centimetres (16–20 in) in diameter and weighing 15–30 kilograms (33–66 lb) each ( coconuts are
1332-683: Is possible north of subtropical climates, and some higher latitude locales such as Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Pacific Northwest feature a few palms in protected locations and microclimates . In the United States , there are at least 12 native palm species, mostly occurring in the states of the Deep South and Florida . Palms inhabit a variety of ecosystems. More than two-thirds of palm species live in humid moist forests, where some species grow tall enough to form part of
1406-460: Is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, and trunk-forming members. Some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea . Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters. The trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud and
1480-748: The Apalachee massacre . When rumors of a third raid reached the Spanish in San Luis de Talimali, they decided to abandon the province. About 600 Apalachee survivors of Moore's raids were settled near New Windsor, South Carolina . Following the Yamasee War the New Windsor band joined the Lower Creek , and many returned to Florida . When the Spanish abandoned Apalachee province in 1704, some 800 surviving Indians, including Apalachees, Chacatos, and Yamasee, fled west to Pensacola , along with many of
1554-511: The Carolinas , Georgia , and Alabama . The Apalachee language was a Muskogean language , about which little more is known. It went extinct in the late 18th century. The only surviving Apalachee document is a 1688 letter written by Apalachee chiefs to the Spanish king. Ethnographer John Reed Swanton wrote that Apalachee may have come from the Hitchiti language term for "people on
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#17327651631571628-566: The Dasypogonaceae . For a phylogenetic tree of the family, see the list of Arecaceae genera . The Arecaceae were the first modern family of monocots to appear in the fossil record around 80 million years ago (Mya), during the late Cretaceous period. The first modern species, such as Nypa fruticans and Acrocomia aculeata , appeared 69 Mya, as evidenced by fossil Nypa pollen. Palms appear to have undergone an early period of adaptive radiation . By 60 Mya, many of
1702-671: The Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes , and westward to what is now Oklahoma . The Apalachee acquired copper artifacts, sheets of mica , greenstone , and galena from distant locations through this trade. The Apalachee probably paid for such imports with shells, pearls, shark teeth, preserved fish and sea turtle meat, salt, and cassina leaves and twigs (used to make the black drink ). The Apalachee made tools from stone, bone and shell. They made pottery , wove cloth and cured buckskin . They built houses covered with palm leaves or
1776-579: The canopy and shorter ones form part of the understory . Some species form pure stands in areas with poor drainage or regular flooding, including Raphia hookeri which is common in coastal freshwater swamps in West Africa. Other palms live in tropical mountain habitats above 1 thousand metres (3 thousand feet), such as those in the genus Ceroxylon native to the Andes . Palms may also live in grasslands and scrublands, usually associated with
1850-673: The "Preserve America" Presidential Award in 2006. In the 1670s, tribes north and west of the Apalachee (including Chiscas , Apalachicolas , Yamasees and other groups within the Muscogee Confederacy) raided Apalachee missions and seized captives. They traded the captives to the British colony of Carolina , where they were sold as slaves to Carolinian colonists. Seeing that the Spanish could not fully protect them, some Apalachees joined their enemies. Apalachee reprisal raids, made in part to try to capture English traders, pushed
1924-550: The Apalachee domain and headed north into what is now the state of Georgia. About 1600, the Spanish Franciscan priests founded a successful mission among the Apalachee, adding several settlements over the next century. Apalachee acceptance of the priests may have related to social stresses, as they had lost population to infectious diseases brought by the Europeans. Many Apalachee converted to Catholicism , in
1998-647: The Ceroxyloideae and Phytelephantoideae. Studies have suggested the lack of a fully resolved hypothesis for the relationships within the family is due to a variety of factors, including difficulties in selecting appropriate outgroups, homoplasy in morphological character states, slow rates of molecular evolution important for the use of standard DNA markers , and character polarization. However, hybridization has been observed among Orbignya and Phoenix species, and using chloroplast DNA in cladistic studies may produce inaccurate results due to maternal inheritance of
2072-574: The IUCN, and was published in 1996. The rarest palm known is Hyophorbe amaricaulis . The only living individual remains at the Botanic Gardens of Curepipe in Mauritius . Some pests are specialists to particular taxa . Pests that attack a variety of species of palms include: The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory in classical antiquity . The Romans rewarded champions of
2146-526: The Middle East and North Africa. A wide range of common products and foods are derived from palms. In contemporary times, palms are also widely used in landscaping. In many historical cultures, because of their importance as food, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, and fertility. The word Arecaceae is derived from the word areca with the suffix "-aceae". Areca is derived from Portuguese , via Malayalam അടയ്ക്ക ( aṭaykka ), which
2220-964: The Native people hunted fish and used the water for domestic needs and transport. The largest Apalachee community was at Lake Jackson , just north of present-day Tallahassee . This regional center had several mounds and 200 or more houses. Some of the surviving mounds are protected in Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park . The Apalachee cultivated maize , beans, and squash, as well as amaranth and sunflowers. They also harvested wild plants including persimmons, maypops, acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, sassafras, yaupon holly , cabbage palm ( Sabal palmetto ), and saw palmetto ( Serenoa ). They hunted deer , black bears , rabbits , opossums , squirrels, geese, wild turkeys, and mountain lions. The Apalachee were part of an expansive trade network that extended from
2294-559: The Pensacola area returned to Apalachee province around 1718, settling near a recently built Spanish fort at St. Marks, Florida . Many Apalachees from the village of Ivitachuco moved to a site called Abosaya near a fortified Spanish ranch in what is today Alachua County, Florida . In late 1705, the remaining missions and ranches in the area were attacked, and Abosaya was under siege for 20 days. The Apalachees of Abosaya moved south of St. Augustine, but most of them were killed in raids within
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2368-580: The Rathayatra carts which carry the deities of Krishna and his family members in the cart festival of Jagganath Puri in India are marked with the emblem of a palm tree. Specifically it is the symbol of Krishna's brother, Baladeva. In 1840, the American geologist Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) published the first tree-like paleontology chart in his Elementary Geology , with two separate trees of life for
2442-543: The Spanish in the province. Unhappy with conditions in Pensacola, most of the Apalachees moved further west to French-controlled Mobile . They encountered a yellow-fever epidemic in the town and lost more people. Later, some Apalachees moved on to the Red River in present-day Louisiana , while others returned to the Pensacola area, to a village called Nuestra Señora de la Soledad y San Luís. A few Apalachees from
2516-530: The area. The sale of seeds to nurseries and collectors is another threat, as the seeds of popular palms are sometimes harvested directly from the wild. In 2006, at least 100 palm species were considered endangered, and nine species have been reported as recently extinct. However, several factors make palm conservation more difficult. Palms live in almost every type of warm habitat and have tremendous morphological diversity. Most palm seeds lose viability quickly, and they cannot be preserved in low temperatures because
2590-673: The bark of cypress or poplar trees. They stored food in pits in the ground lined with matting , and smoked or dried food on racks over fires. (When Hernando de Soto seized the Apalachee town of Anhaico in 1539, he found enough stored food to feed his 600 men and 220 horses for five months.) The Apalachee men wore a deerskin loincloth . The women wore a skirt made of Spanish moss or other plant fibers. The men painted their bodies with red ochre and placed feathers in their hair when they prepared for battle. The men smoked tobacco in ceremonial rituals, including ones for healing. The Apalachee scalped opponents whom they killed, exhibiting
2664-659: The base camps of the raiders eastward, from which they continued to raid Apalachee missions as well as missions in Timucua Province . Efforts were also made to establish missions along the Apalachicola River to create a buffer zone. In particular, several missions were established among the Chacato tribe. In 1702, the Apalachicolas ambushed nearly 800 Apalachee, Chacato, and Timucuan warriors with
2738-407: The base. The stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single- seeded drupe (sometimes berry-like) but some genera (e.g., Salacca ) may contain two or more seeds in each fruit. Like all monocots , palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem ( secondary growth ) via
2812-471: The chloroplast DNA. Chemical and molecular data from non-organelle DNA, for example, could be more effective for studying palm phylogeny. Recently, nuclear genomes and transcriptomes have been used to reconstruct the phylogeny of palms. This has revealed, for example, that a whole-genome duplication event occurred early in the evolution of the Arecaceae lineage, that was not experienced by its sister clade,
2886-503: The cold kills the embryo. Using botanical gardens for conservation also presents problems, since they can rarely house more than a few plants of any species or truly imitate the natural setting. There is also the risk that cross-pollination can lead to hybrid species. The Palm Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) began in 1984, and has performed a series of three studies to find basic information on
2960-729: The deserts, it also created a more amenable habitat for the people to live in by providing shade and protection from the desert winds. An indication of the importance of palms in ancient times is that they are mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible , and at least 22 times in the Quran . The Torah also references the "70 date palm trees", which symbolize the 70 aspects of Torah that are revealed to those who "eat of its fruit." Arecaceae have great economic importance, including coconut products, oils, dates, palm syrup , ivory nuts, carnauba wax, rattan cane, raffia, and palm wood . This family supplies
3034-624: The fourth-oldest surviving European place name in the United States. Two Spanish expeditions encountered the Apalachee in the first half of the 16th century. The expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez entered the Apalachee domain in 1528, and arrived at a village, which Narváez believed was the main settlement in Apalachee. Apalachee resisted attacks by the Spanish, and the Narváez expedition fled to Apalachee Bay, where they built five boats and attempted to sail to Mexico . Only four men survived their ordeal. In 1539, Hernando de Soto landed on
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3108-405: The game was "as ancient as memory", and that they had "no other entertainment ... or relief from ... misery". No indigenous name for the game has been preserved. The Spanish referred to it as el juego de la pelota , "the ballgame." The game involved kicking a small, hard ball against a single goalpost . The same game was also played by the western Timucua , and was as significant among them as it
3182-494: The game. Players began asking priests to make the sign of the cross over pileups during a game. The densely populated Apalachee had a complex, highly stratified society of regional chiefdoms . They were one of the Mississippian cultures and part of an expansive trade network reaching to the Great Lakes . Their reputation was such that when tribes in southern Florida first encountered the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, they said
3256-673: The games and celebrated military successes with palm branches. Early Christians used the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful over enemies of the soul, as in the Palm Sunday festival celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem . In Judaism , the palm represents peace and plenty, and is one of the Four Species of Sukkot ; the palm may also symbolize the Tree of Life in Kabbalah . The canopies of
3330-417: The games. As the Apalachee did not normally use money, their bets were made with personal goods. Each team consisted of 40 to 50 men. The best players were highly prized, and villages gave them houses, planted their fields for them, and overlooked their misdeeds in an effort to keep such players on their teams. Players scored one point if they hit the goalpost with the ball, and two points if the ball landed in
3404-500: The habitat, and those with small habitat ranges are most vulnerable to them. The harvesting of heart of palm, a delicacy in salads, also poses a threat because it is derived from the palm's apical meristem , a vital part of the palm that cannot be regrown (except in domesticated varieties, e.g. of peach palm ). The use of rattan palms in furniture has caused a major population decrease in these species that has negatively affected local and international markets, as well as biodiversity in
3478-432: The history of the Middle East and North Africa. In the text "Date Palm Products" (1993), W.H. Barreveld wrote: One could go as far as to say that, had the date palm not existed, the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the "old" world would have been much more restricted. The date palm not only provided a concentrated energy food, which could be easily stored and carried along on long journeys across
3552-526: The late 18th century, some remnant Apalachees who had converted to Christianity merged with the Lower Creeks and neighboring tribes into the Seminoles . Several organizations claim to represent descendants of the Apalachee people today. None of these are federally recognized tribes or state-recognized tribes . These unrecognized tribes include: Velda Mound Velda Mound ( 8LE44 )
3626-465: The main Apalachee town of Anhaica , somewhere in the area of present-day Tallahassee, Florida , probably near Lake Miccosukee. The Spanish subsequently adapted the Native American name as Apalachee and applied it to the coastal region bordering Apalachee Bay , as well as to the tribe which lived in it. Narváez's expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15, 1528. "Appalachian" is
3700-694: The modern phylogenomic data, the Phytelephantoideae are tribe in the Ceroxyloideae subfamily. Currently, few extensive phylogenetic studies of the Arecaceae exist. In 1997, Baker et al. explored subfamily and tribe relationships using chloroplast DNA from 60 genera from all subfamilies and tribes. The results strongly showed the Calamoideae are monophyletic, and Ceroxyloideae and Coryphoideae are paraphyletic. The relationships of Arecoideae are uncertain, but they are possibly related to
3774-660: The modern, specialized genera of palms appeared and became widespread and common, much more widespread than their range today. Because palms separated from the monocots earlier than other families, they developed more intrafamilial specialization and diversity. By tracing back these diverse characteristics of palms to the basic structures of monocots, palms may be valuable in studying monocot evolution. Several species of palms have been identified from flowers preserved in amber, including Palaeoraphe dominicana and Roystonea palaea . Fossil evidence of them can also be found in samples of petrified palmwood . The relationship between
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#17327651631573848-492: The nest. Eleven points won the game. Play was rough.. They would try to hide the ball in their mouths; other players would choke them or kick them in the stomach to force the ball out. There were occasional deaths. According to Father Paiva, five games in a row had ended in riots. The game's origin story was elaborate. Challenging a team to a game, erecting goalposts and players' benches, and other aspects were governed by strict ceremonial protocols. Christian elements became part of
3922-517: The other side" or the Choctaw language word apelachi meaning "a helper." It has sometimes been spelled Abalache , Abalachi , or Abolachi . The Apalachee are thought to be part of Fort Walton Culture , a Florida culture influenced by the Mississippian culture . The Apalachee were horticulturalists with stratified chiefdoms and sedentary towns and villages. Like many other Southeastern tribes, they have an alternating dual governmental system with
3996-499: The precious metal. Because of their prior experience with the Narváez expedition and reports of fighting between the de Soto expedition and tribes along the way, the Apalachee feared and hated the Spanish. When the de Soto expedition entered the Apalachee domain, the Spanish soldiers were described as "lancing every Indian encountered on both sides of the road." De Soto and his men seized the Apalachee town of Anhaica , where they spent
4070-504: The process creating a syncretic fashioning of their traditions and Christianity. In February 1647, the Apalachee revolted against the Spanish near a mission named San Antonio de Bacuqua in present-day Leon County, Florida . The revolt changed the relationship between Spanish authorities and the Apalachee. Following the revolt, Apalachee men were forced to work on public projects in St. Augustine or on Spanish-owned ranches. San Luis de Talimali ,
4144-430: The region. A village would challenge another village to a game, and the two villages would then negotiate a day and place for the match. After the Spanish missions were established, the games usually took place on a Sunday afternoon, from about noon until dark. The two teams kicked a small ball (not much bigger than a musket ball ), made by wrapping buckskin around dried mud, trying to hit the goalpost. The single goalpost
4218-413: The result of their depleting nearby natural resources, such as trees for building homes and for firewood. The soil may have become depleted as well. The people would move to new lands which were more fertile, and allow older areas to recover. No evidence exists showing occupation of the mound by the later Spanish or British colonists. In March 1922, a Florida State College for Women instructor, Emma Boyd,
4292-644: The riches which the Spanish sought could be found in Apalachee country. The " Appalachian " place name is derived from the Narváez Expedition 's encounter in 1528 with the Tocobaga , who spoke of a country named Apalachen far to the north. Several weeks later the expedition entered the territory of Apalachee north of the Aucilla River. Eleven years later the Hernando de Soto expedition reached
4366-399: The same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants . This explains the cylindrical shape of the trunk (almost constant diameter) that is often seen in palms, unlike in ring -forming trees. However, many palms, like some other monocots, do have secondary growth, although because it does not arise from a single vascular cambium producing xylem inwards and phloem outwards, it
4440-446: The scalps as signs of warrior ability. Taking a scalp was a means of entering the warrior class, and was celebrated with a scalp dance. The warriors wore headdresses made of bird beaks and animal fur. The village or clan of a slain warrior was expected to avenge his death. The Apalachee played a ball game, sometimes known as the "Apalachee ball game", described in detail by Spaniards in the 17th century. The fullest description, however,
4514-486: The second largest). Raffia palms ( Raphia spp.) have the largest leaves of any plant, up to 25 metres (82 ft) long and 3 metres (10 ft) wide. The Corypha species have the largest inflorescence of any plant, up to 7.5 metres (25 ft) tall and containing millions of small flowers. Calamus stems can reach 200 metres (656 ft) in length. Most palms are native to tropical and subtropical climates. Palms thrive in moist and hot climates but can be found in
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#17327651631574588-485: The status of palms in the wild, use of wild palms, and palms under cultivation. Two projects on palm conservation and use supported by the World Wildlife Fund took place from 1985 to 1990 and 1986–1991, in the American tropics and southeast Asia, respectively. Both studies produced copious new data and publications on palms. Preparation of a global action plan for palm conservation began in 1991, supported by
4662-411: The stem. The leaves have a tubular sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity. The flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each and may be distinct or joined at
4736-482: The subfamilies is shown in the following cladogram: Calamoideae Nypoideae Coryphoideae Ceroxyloideae Arecoideae Evidence for cultivation of the date palm by Mesopotamians and other Middle Eastern peoples exists from more than 5,000 years ago, in the form of date wood, pits for storing dates, and other remains of the date palm in Mesopotamian sites. The date palm had a significant effect on
4810-484: The top of an unbranched stem, except for the Hyphaene genus, who has branched palms. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts . Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families. They have been important to humans throughout much of history, especially in regions like
4884-647: The tropics, mostly in humid lowland subtropical climates, in highlands in southern Asia, and along the rim lands of the Mediterranean Sea . The northernmost native palm is Chamaerops humilis , which reaches 44°N latitude along the coast of Liguria , Italy . In the southern hemisphere, the southernmost palm is the Rhopalostylis sapida , which reaches 44°S on the Chatham Islands where an oceanic climate prevails. Cultivation of palms
4958-453: The west coast of the peninsula of Florida with a large contingent of men and horses to search for gold . The Native Americans told him that gold could be found in "Apalachee." Historians have not determined if the Native people meant the mountains of northern Georgia , an actual source of gold, or valuable copper artifacts which the Apalachee acquired through trade. Either way, de Soto and his men went north to Apalachee territory in pursuit of
5032-568: The western capital of Spanish Florida from 1656 to 1704, is a National Historic Landmark in Tallahassee, Florida . The historic site is being operated as a living history museum by the Florida Department of Archeology. Including an Indigenous council house, it re-creates one of the Spanish missions and Apalachee culture, showing the closely related lives of Apalachee and Spanish in these settlements. The historic site received
5106-438: The winter of 1539 and 1540. Apalachee fought back with quick raiding parties and ambushes. Their arrows could penetrate two layers of chain mail . They targeted Spaniards' horses, which otherwise gave the Spanish an advantage against the unmounted Apalachee. The Apalachee were described as "being more pleased in killing one of these animals than they were in killing four Christians." In the spring of 1540, de Soto and his men left
5180-426: The world. Along with dates mentioned above, members of the palm family with human uses are numerous: Like many other plants, palms have been threatened by human intervention and exploitation . The greatest risk to palms is destruction of habitat , especially in the tropical forests , due to urbanization , wood-chipping , mining , and conversion to farmland . Palms rarely reproduce after such great changes in
5254-575: Was among the Apalachee. A related but distinct game was played by the eastern Timucua; René Goulaine de Laudonnière recorded seeing this played by the Saturiwa of what is now Jacksonville, Florida in 1564. Goalposts similar to those used by the Apalachee were also seen in the Coosa chiefdom of present-day in Alabama during the 16th century, suggesting that similar ball games were played across much of
5328-533: Was killed when a portion of the mound collapsed while she and her friends were excavating it. During the 1950s, the area around the mound was part of the pastures used by the large Velda Dairy operation. During this era, looters continued digging into the mound to search for artifacts , which damaged the mound and altered its structure. The dairy property was later sold for redevelopment as the Arbor Hill residential subdivision. The mound has since been repaired and
5402-403: Was triangular, flat, and taller than it was wide, on a long post (Bushnell described it, based on a drawing in a Spanish manuscript, as "like a tall, flat Christmas tree with a long trunk"). There were snail shells , a nest and a stuffed eagle on top of the goalpost. Benches, and sometimes arbors to shade them, were placed at the edges of the field for the two teams. Spectators gambled heavily on
5476-527: Was written as part of a campaign by Father Juan de Paiva , a priest at the mission of San Luis de Talimali , to have the game banned, and some of the practices described may have been exaggerated. The game was embedded in ritual practices that Father Paiva regarded as heathen superstitions. He was also concerned about the effect of community involvement in the games on the welfare of the villages and Spanish missions. In particular, he worried about towns being left defenseless against raiders when inhabitants left for
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