Former Wollongong Botanic Garden botanist Anders Bofeldt never liked the Canary Island date palm. He believed the palm, popular in the Illawarra, should not have been propagated here because it was a weed and attracted pest birds.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was also a hazard to those removing or pruning the fronds which turned into wooden spikes - the needle-like tip potentially able to impale or seriously harm someone.
Sadly it was such an injury that cost the popular botanist his life almost a year ago. Mr Bofeldt (pictured) was pruning a palm when a frond stabbed him in the arm.
The wound later became infected and the 46-year-old died 10 days later.
In today's Weekender magazine, his friend and former co-worker Carl Glaister says that if anything good can come from Mr Bofeldt's death it should be that councils and developers stop planting the Canary Island date palm.
"We should be showing off our local palms instead, like the bangalow or the cabbage tree palm, that's what Anders would have wanted."
