Trees of Dubai

Date palms are native here. I've never lived in a place with date palms. The trees are prolific. Many of the people who have date palms in their yard will place a green net bag around the clumps of dates so that as they dry and fall off the stems, they are captured. During Ramadan, the first meal to break the fast is dates. Arabs will usually have a plate of dates whenever hosting guests in their house. The grocery stores have dates in so many different varieties - I've never seen so many dates. One favorite thing to do is stuff the dates with a nut; pistachio, walnut, almond, cashews are all used. Additionally, these stuffed dates may be dipped in white, milk, or dark chocolate. And finally, you may have these chocolate coated dates also rolled in chopped nuts (again: pistachios, walnuts, almonds, or cashews). Yummm.

Another common site is the bouganvillea. Evidently, feed them a little Miracle Grow and they will bloom like wildfire. The bouganvillea were in bloom when I was here in May and they are still in bloom. I'm told they will bloom all year. They come in a variety of colors; white, yellow, pale pink and fuscia. Many people plant them so that they will grow over the tops of their garden walls or over the arbor to provide shade.

My favorite, however, is the Flamboyant tree. This tree was in bloom in May, but is mostly done by now. When I came here 3 months ago, the streets were lined with these trees - all covered with a beautiful orange flower. They still provide a great amount of shade for the laborers to rest during the heat of the afternoon.