The making of a miniature palm tree

I have been making things with parts of palm trees since I started going to Cambodia in 2010, where palm trees are plentiful.  

Gradually I learn more about them.  Including how a palm tree is structured and how it arrives at its distinctive shape. A palm leaf can be quite big, as much as 20 foot long, and has a distinctive structure.  A leaf is attached to the trunk by wrapping a part of itself around the trunk.  It then extends a spine outwards from the trunk.  Leaflets grow from the spine.  When a leaf dries and falls off, it leaves behind a scar in the form of a ring around the trunk.  Each ring in the trunk then is a remnant of a leaf.  The number of rings along the trunk then represent the number of leaves the palm tree has ever had.  

I took a spine and shape it into a small trunk.  Pieces of a leaf are cut into the shape of leaves.  The lowest part of a leaf is wrapped around the trunk, with steps cut into the trunk to accommodate the thickness of the leaf.  The result is a miniature palm leaf of my own. 

My palm art is a byproduct of service-learning. 

#SChanPalmArt