Pygmy palms in spring

Monday before this week's onset of monsoon season, I took these photos of the pygmy palm in front of our house in Vero Beach.  Those tassels are so gorgeous to look at, but that yellow stuff is just what you might suspect--pollen!  We have a man who comes and trims out bushes every month.  I have discouraged him from cutting these off while they are fresh because the birds feed on them.  It's a mixed blessing, since my sinuses don't appreciate my concern for the "world of nature".

Here you get a better view of the "pods" that seem to magically emerge from the corona at the top of the trunk (before the leaves).  There are four pygmy palms in our cluster.  The outer one is always slower to "mature" than the others.

 This is a photograph of the quartet after the rain, when much of the pollen has been washed away from the pods onto the ground.