Here is some facinating history that points to the evidence that Florida once had a much warmer climate- William Bartram found the Royal Palm (he named it Palma elata) growing much further north than it's present range-

Quote:

Roystonea attracted the attention of William Bartram (1791), who described the palm growing near Lake Dexter, along the St. Johns River in what is now Lake and Volusia counties. That this palm naturally grew so far north of its present range in historical times is an intriguing puzzle. J. G. Cooper (1861) believed that Tthe severe freeze of 1835 may have extirpated the northern populations (J. G. Cooper 1861). . O. F. Cook (1936) suggested that Perhaps fires used by early settlers to clear land reduced the number of Roystonea palms in northern and central Florida (.O. F. Cook 1936). J. K. Small (1937) suggested that Or, in addition to freezes in 1835 and 1894--95, overexploitation by humans may have extirpated the palms (J. K. Small 1937); Small reported that a factory in the vicinity of Bartram’s population turned out walking sticks made of palm wood. Whatever the historical reason for their decline, indigenous populations of R. regia are now found only in Collier and Dade counties.

taken from http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200027116

Quote:

According to Small (Jour. N.Y. Bot. Garden, vol. 29, 1928, p. 8 ), "All this evidence indicates that up to about a century ago Florida had a protracted warmer and perhaps less changeable elimate, [and] that the sporadic occurrence of tropical and semitropical plants in the more northern part of the peninsula represents the remains of a generous distribution of more typically southern plants further north."

Perhaps now our recent Ice Age will be ending with global warming

Heck, there are scientific reports published that the polar regions, several hundred million years ago were teeming with palms. That's from fossil records after digging through the soil or lake bottoms as the antartic ice melted away. I wonder why they melted, it couldn't be global warming, right?

You may call it global warming or not, could just be semantics for melting of glaciers all over the world including the accelerated loss of ice in the polar regions. There are of course new glaciers forming but are outnumbered more than 50 to 1. If the observation do not agree with our thinking, let us just call it a conjecture.

There will be dramatic climate changes for sure. Once again, the antartic will have citruses and palm trees. Better stake a land claim over there while it's hot.

Very interesting post, thank you. While in Philadelphia recently, I took a 7mile side trip to Darby, Penn. (one of PA's oldest towns) to see William Bartram's homestead. His home has been restored and is open to the public. An acquaintance of mine Roger Mower was the lead engineer in charge of the restoration.

Hello Joe,
I am not at all trying to deny the current warming trend (and yes at FSU we call it Global Warming too )in the Northern Hemisphere that is very well documented-what I am trying to point out is that for us folks who grow tropical and sub-tropical plants in Florida and the south eastern portion of the US-the immediate future may be looking brighter.Back in 1979 while a student at UF I was able to see orange trees at Island Grove,Florida (near Orange Lake-south of Gainesville, north of Ocala) that had survived the 1894-95 "Big Freeze"-the huge diameter of their trunk bases were a testament to the good growing conditions they enjoyed for many years prior to this historic freeze-these same trees were all killed in the 1980's.Commercial citrus in my state has moved south several times-but in recent years we have had less severe winters (which we all realize will vary independently of global over-all trends) which should make us hopeful.Here in north Florida a good indicator plant for us of the winter trends is the Black Mangrove colony on Dog Island off the coast of Carabelle,FL- this is the northern-most colony and on normal years they get nipped-but they are really thriving now! For the Royal Palms to be as large as the ones Bartram described they would have to have had many years of nearly frost-free conditions in north-central Florida! We may be coming into such a warm spell as we have enjoyed in the past-and taking the risk of planting a few tender plants isn't a bad idea IMHO.