[bazzargh]

On the topic of non-native palms - I only recently learned that most of the 'palms' that are a surprising sight in the UK - eg in Plockton in the north of Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plockton

... aren't palms at all, but Cabbage Trees, native to New Zealand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyline_australis) and they're nothing to do with cabbage either. Probably not news to gardeners and botanists but I'd always wondered how they got there.