People from the capital say goodbye to La Palma on Paseo de la Reforma


The Government of Mexico City and the residents of the capital paid tribute this Sunday to the emblematic palm of Paseo de la Reformahours before it was removed from the roundabout to which it gave the same name.

After spending more than a hundred years adorning the intersection of the avenue with the streets of Río Rhin and Niza, the palm had to be removed because it has a disease caused by fungi and bacteria that has also affected other palm trees in the city, as detailed by the capital authorities.

The citizens of the capital who usually visit the Reform Walk On bicycles they took advantage of the Sunday ride to say goodbye to the palm tree, take pictures, hug it or touch it for the last time.

In an event led by the secretary of the Environment of Mexico CityMarina Robles García, the capital authorities dismissed this living monument that was planted in the first decades of the 20th century.



It should be remembered that last Thursday, Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Government of Mexico City, reported that the palm would be removed and treatment would be attempted to relocate it to another site later.

“Unfortunately, the Glorieta de la Palma palm tree has a fungus and cannot be saved (…) Unfortunately, it cannot be saved and we are going to do several issues with the palm tree,” said Claudia Sheinbaum.

The mythical palm of Paseo de la Reforma would have been infected by the fungus Nalanthamala vermoesenii (Biourge) Schroers, known as the pink rot fungus.

“Let’s give him a farewell. We are going to make a symbolic retreat, for what she represents in the history of the city. We will do this retreat on Sunday afternoon-night. We are going to take it to the Nezahualcóyotl Nursery. She has to undergo treatment and then we have asked a group of artists who can intervene and she can be placed in another place, “said the head of the capital’s government.

This tree, which “temporarily” replaced a statue of the hero Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla that should have been placed in that same place, became the most emblematic living monument of Paseo de la Reforma that crosses the Mexican capital from northeast to southwest.




The palm he saw the birth, growth and death of at least three generations of Mexicans; also the rise and fall of a political regime, the alternation in power with political bipartisanship and the arrival of the so-called Fourth Transformation. The palm grew when the Mexican miracle of the 1940s strengthened the peso as an international currency and also experienced a battery of economic crises that have occurred in the country since the 1970s and for almost forty years.

Located in front of the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and to which it gives a location reference, it has been photographed in black and white, then in color and now with cameras of up to 60 megapixels for the cell phones of the vain Instagram generation. And when the Angel of Independence fell due to the 1957 earthquake, the palm tree remained upright.

City government officials have warned that another 1,700 palm trees They are under observation to try to recover them from the disease caused by fungi and bacteria, but meanwhile, 200 palm trees located throughout the capital are already dead, so they will soon begin to be removed.

Photo: Reuters

The CDMX Government he fears that the dryness of some trunks will end up felling all those trees, potentially causing harm to people. Once the dead palm trees have been removed, they will be deposited in a sanitary pit expressly arranged for this purpose and thereby prevent the fungi from spreading to other trees.

The Mexico City It has a census of at least 15,000 standing palm trees, of which up to 25% would have some pest that could lead to the removal of these trees.

After the announcement of the removal of the palm tree, Sheinbaum Pardo explained that, in collaboration with the residents of the capital, they will seek to replace the palm with some other tree or place another type of monument there.

“In its place we will put to citizen consultation if we plant a jacaranda, ceiba, ash, ahuehuete or some other species; as well as the name of the roundabout”, he expressed.

“What are we going to do with the Glorieta de la Palma? Our objective is that we do not decide, but that citizens help us to decide. We consider that it is best to place a tree there. It is a worthy place to recognize the trees of our city”, he added.

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