by Brittanyv326 » Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:00 pm
I'm confused by all of the lists online. I wish they had more details about subspecies. It says pine and palm are safe, which in southwest Florida both are abundant. But there are no specifications to the subspecies. There are hundreds of different types of palm and several different types of pine. Many come from different parts of the world. We have the native species of slash pine, then we have the invasive Australian pine, and they're not very similar, so how can we say just "pine" is safe? Or have ALL been checked and deemed safe? We also have date palms, royal palms, travelers palms, queens palms, coconut palms, ponytail palms, sago palms, oil palms, bottleneck palms... The list is endless and these trees come from everywhere! I'm a bit of a palm tree lover, we have about 7 types in our own yard, so I realize these trees differ greatly. I've also taken quite a few classes about the SWFL environment, it really interests me and I'm confident that I can easily identify the tree if only I had a more specific reference of safe vs unsafe... Can they all really be safe? I know the feral populations of Quaker Parrots have been spotted eating dates of the date palms, so I might just go with those... I don't know though. What are your thoughts on this?