Portugal Colonial - 'In her prime': Rare blooming of palm trees in Rio

The trees, growing in Rio's Aterro do Flamengo park and the Botanical Garden, were planted in the 1960s by the legendary landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.

Now, some six decades later, these giants have reached the peak of their existence in the Brazilian seaside city.

The talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), native to southern India and Sri Lanka, is one of the largest palm species on the planet, some reaching more than 30 meters (98 feet) tall.

It flowers only once in its entire life, if it reaches between 40 and 70 years of age.

"The talipot palm only fruits once in its lifetime, and can produce up to five million fruits," Marcus Nadruz, from the Research Institute of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, told AFP.

The inflorescences, or flower clusters on stems, began to unfurl in October, forming enormous crowns atop the palm trees that teem with millions of tiny yellowish blossoms.

The entire process, from the opening of the first flowers to the ripening of the fruit, will take about a year, explained Nadruz.

But this splendor has an inevitable end. Once the fruit falls, the palm trees will slowly begin to die.

"I was born in 1961, so she's my age and in her prime," said Deborah Faride, who traveled to see the trees from Sao Paulo and was taking pictures of them with a friend.

"We're the same age and we're blooming together. Just one detail: the talipot is going to die. And I'm going to continue, God willing."

The Botanical Garden plans to collect the seeds to cultivate new seedlings to replace these older plants, and will also distribute them for landscaping projects in public spaces.

M.A.Vaz--PC