To get a good look at it up close, you have to tilt your head back so far that your hat might fall off. Standing at eight meters tall, this is perhaps the oldest green guest in the city of Lviv.
About four hundred sixty years ago, this fan palm was thriving in Italy. It was then uprooted and transported as a gift to the Austrian Chancellor, who passed it on to the Botanical Garden in Krakow. When the botanical garden was established at Lviv University, the palm was sent here as a present. And now, it has been living in the university greenhouse for over a hundred years.
A few years ago, the palm reached its “head” up to the ceiling. At that point, they removed the glass roof and built up the walls. Unfortunately, this led to a mishap—the green guest of Lviv “caught a cold.” Just like a sick friend, the gardeners kept watch over it, maintaining a specific temperature in the greenhouse—and the ailing tree recovered!