Here's an original home (1958) in a typical old South Florida neighborhood where it was basically a wild coconut grove that had been subdivided into lots and as the homes were built, most of the time they left as many of the very tall coconut trees in place and only removed the ones necessary to build the foundation and driveway.
These were the trees over 100 feet tall, but they were almost completely wiped out by lethal yellowing in the early 1970's.
Every home had the 2 inch thick white roofing tiles to resist falling coconuts and nobody would have bought the homes without custom-fitted galvanized storm shutters to protect from flying coconuts which could be expected when hurricanes came too close. When it got risky, they boarded up with steel.
For landscaping purposes after the 1970's the dying trees could be replaced by a Malayan Dwarf variety that was resistant to the yellowing disease.
Taking a look at pics 5 & 6 this is the sad result.
Where once there was a wild verdant coconut canopy about 5 times thicker than what you see now, to this day it still looks like one of the much newer neighborhoods out in the Everglades where all their greenery was originally placed by landscapers.
The royal palms have grown up nicely and they're the tallest palms by far. Not a lot of the dwarf coconuts bear fruit much higher than people's roofs. A couple of the large trees could be the local avocados, which if female have fruits about a kilo each. If male, the homeowner may not know they have an avocado tree :/
But if they cut it down, the owner of the female tree may wonder WTF happened.
Anyway for survival purposes the husk fibers of a fairly dried out unhusked coconut (one that's too old to be very good to eat) can be one of the most likely kindlings to actually burst into flame rather than just char when concentrating the sun's rays with a magnifying glass.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1431-S-Oce...
These were the trees over 100 feet tall, but they were almost completely wiped out by lethal yellowing in the early 1970's.
Every home had the 2 inch thick white roofing tiles to resist falling coconuts and nobody would have bought the homes without custom-fitted galvanized storm shutters to protect from flying coconuts which could be expected when hurricanes came too close. When it got risky, they boarded up with steel.
For landscaping purposes after the 1970's the dying trees could be replaced by a Malayan Dwarf variety that was resistant to the yellowing disease.
Taking a look at pics 5 & 6 this is the sad result.
Where once there was a wild verdant coconut canopy about 5 times thicker than what you see now, to this day it still looks like one of the much newer neighborhoods out in the Everglades where all their greenery was originally placed by landscapers.
The royal palms have grown up nicely and they're the tallest palms by far. Not a lot of the dwarf coconuts bear fruit much higher than people's roofs. A couple of the large trees could be the local avocados, which if female have fruits about a kilo each. If male, the homeowner may not know they have an avocado tree :/ But if they cut it down, the owner of the female tree may wonder WTF happened.
Anyway for survival purposes the husk fibers of a fairly dried out unhusked coconut (one that's too old to be very good to eat) can be one of the most likely kindlings to actually burst into flame rather than just char when concentrating the sun's rays with a magnifying glass.