If you haven't read it yet, go read Wanna's short essay on palm trees in Khmer culture which touches on history, symbols, politics, cuisine, conservation, and Wanna's delightful personal memories of palm trees in his home country. He also includes an excellent set of web references on the topic - which I'm going to save as this could be developed into a mini lesson integrating science and cambodia for Harry or Sara sometime soon.
For long, the Khmer has adopted the thought that "where there're palm trees, where the Khmer territory is."
Can you imagine if Robert Frost grew up in Cambodia? Maybe that famous poem about fences would have started with something like "Palm trees make good neighbors."
The photo above is from my first trip to Cambodia in 2000. We had arrived at Pochentong Airport (now a more modernized Phnom Penh Airport) and drove to the orphange (very near to the airport) to get Harry. I was snapping photos from the car window and was amazed at the palm trees.
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