Pune to get a Palm park

Spread across 40 acres and adorned with 2,000 varieties of palm trees, the park will be inaugurated on September 11

There's good for Puneites as the city will soon get its first Palm Park. Spread across 40 acres of Empress Botanical Garden in Cantonment, the park will have 2,000 varieties of palm trees that will be brought from across the world and will be planted in the next five years.



The Empress garden is planning to get some unique variety of Palms, which includes Phoenix Paludosa and Jelly Palm from Brazil, Corypha Umbraculifera and Ravania Rivularis from Madagascar Island, Phoenix Date Palm from Saudi Arabia and North Africa and Coccotrina Elegans from the USA.

Suresh Pingle, honorary secretary of Empress Garden, said, "The city earlier had a variety of Palm trees.

Veteran botanist Dr V D Vartak had discovered 44 different Palm species around Pune in early 1950s and even the University of Pune has a collection of 25 species of Palms in their nursery,"

While Dr Phiroz Poonawala, secretary of Empress Garden, said, "This will be a place for the botanical scholars to study in future."