Even if winter grouches and sun worshipers don’t like to hear it: It’s too warm. Especially the ongoing winter is too mild. In Austria, for example, it ranks sixth among the mildest winters in the 256-year history of measurements. There, and also in Switzerland, there was less snow than ever since records began. The glaciers melt, the meadows sprout.
And not just them. Due to the warm temperatures in the cold season, the palm trees also thrive, more precisely: the Chinese hemp palm. Ironically, this Asian plant, once introduced as an ornamental plant, feels particularly at home in Switzerland, in Ticino. As reported by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), it finds better and better conditions there to multiply outside of the plant pots, i.e. on the edge of the forest and town.
Now some will say: Finally a positive impact of climate change! In addition, the hemp palm has become an integral part of the townscape in cities such as Ascona or Verbania, hardly a postcard motif without the widely diversified leaves, which is why it is also nicknamed Ticino palm.
However, according to the WSL, the invasive species also has its downsides: its roots hardly strengthen the soil, so that it is out of the question as a protective forest against landslides and avalanches. The plant currently only grows up to 900 meters above sea level, but with climate change it will continue to climb. So instead of larches and stone pines, soon hemp palms in Zermatt? That would be a nice postcard motif with secondary use on Instagram.
But the renowned research institute WSL does not want to get that far, also because the many dead palm leaves increased the risk of forest fires. So a “targeted method of combating” has been developed to curb the excesses. With a chainsaw cut close to the ground, adult palm trees would be reliably knocked out. However, young palm trees will sprout again, which is why the palm heart should be destroyed with a large drill. Now you just have to make the brutal method palatable to the 60 percent of the Swiss population who stated in a WSL survey that they associate the hemp palm with positive feelings.