To get a good look up close, you have to tilt your head back so far your hat might fall off. Standing eight meters tall, it’s perhaps the city’s oldest green resident.
About 460 years ago, this fan palm was thriving in Italy. It was then uprooted and transported as a gift to the Austrian chancellor, who later passed it on to the Botanical Garden in Krakow. When Lviv University established its botanical garden, the palm was sent there as a gift. Now it’s been living in the university greenhouse for more than a hundred years.
A few years ago, the palm’s top reached the ceiling. At that point, the greenhouse staff removed the glass roof and raised the walls. That change caused a problem—the palm “caught a cold.” Like tending a sick friend, the gardeners monitored it and kept the greenhouse at a steady temperature—and the ailing tree recovered!
