Royal Pain

The royal palm (Roystonea) is a single-stemmed palm with pinnate leaves and comprises 10 species native to Central and South America, the Caribbean and Florida. These palms, with their smooth, sculpted trunks, are particularly common along Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. The Florida variety can grow to 80 feet. Photo: Miller Legg (see ''The Median is the Message'' in the Aug. 2009 issue or at www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/12299.)

When is a royal palm a pain? When it interferes with power lines, of course.

In Cape Coral, Fla., residents have been prohibited, and rightly so it would seem, from planting royal plams in the right of way near power lines.

Just to get your bearings, Cape Coral, pop. 167,917, is the largest city in Southwest Florida, right on the Gulf of Mexico and is said to have more miles of canals than any city on earth!

But, back to the royal palms. The Cape Coral Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-2 in mid-Aug. 2009 to allow royal palms back in the city. The debate lasted a reported five hours! The new landscape ordinance, which according to the local media has been a work in progress for more than five years, will allow the trees on the same side as the power lines as long as the center of the trees are 10 feet from the power lines.

The ordinance now goes before Cape Coral City Council for final approval.