In this part of Florida the palms planted along highways are native Sabal palmettos. Some have bare trunks, some have a rather pretty criss cross pattern of old leaf “boots” that persist after the leaves fall or are burned or trimmed off.
The massive royal palms the article refers to are Florida natives -Roystonea regia palms - that need to be in zone 10a or warmer. They are considered by many to be the most handsome of all palm trees, and there are a few wild stands left in the everglades. They have smooth, straight pale gray trunks that at the crown transition to a bright green crown shaft, and unlike coconut or date palms which have flat leaves resembling a fish skeleton, the leaves of a royal palm are very full and three dimensional like a fox’s tail.
One day a guy came by and said, "I'll give you $300 each for three of them". I said "No thanks, I like the shade"—and that was that...
He came by the next day and said, "I'll give you $1000 for the those three Royal Palms".
That sounded SO much better, and I took it; as agreed, he filled in the holes, and planted another three Royal Palms. I asked where the palms were headed, and he said, West Palm Beach.
Two weeks later, Southeast Florida took on Hurricane Andrew!