Striations
Hold a palm leaf up to the sun and it lights up like stained glass. Every palm leaf is pleated like a paper fan, folded for strength, and those folds are what draw these long, glowing lines of lime and deep green. The bay leaf palm's leaves have a shape botanists call costapalmate, somewhere between a fan and a feather, and each one can carry up to 150 segments.
In northern Belize, this is the traditional thatching palm. Its fronds once roofed the Maya villages of the north, and craftspeople still squeeze each frond into a broom-shaped bundle and lace it through the rafters by hand. These palms go way back, too: some of the oldest palm fossils ever found are leaves of a Sabal, the same group as this one, from about 80 million years ago.
This moment of noticing was special because it was during a visit to Rocky Point, a quiet stretch of coast east of Sarteneja, where the lagoon meets the sea. Visiting new places is always exciting for me as I’m sure to run into new species to notice and make art with. Striations is a pure example of this. Tucked away on a tiny path along the sea, the sun momentarily hit this palm perfectly.
What we protect begins with what we notice. My noticing leads to The Wild Land Project.
About This Image
Common name: Bay leaf palm (likely)
Scientific name: Sabal mauritiiformis
Location: Northern Belize
Collection: The Fabric of Nature
