The palms are the commonest form of vegetation one can see on the roads. But these are not the coconut palms that we Indians are so accustomed to. These are the date palms. Shorter than coconut palms by more than a hand, they stand anywhere between 6 and 8 feet in height. With knobbly trunks and pale green needly leaves, they are not half as pretty as our coconut palms – at least not to our Indian eyes. But obviously they are the life-givers in the desert. In summer, when it is date season, local people say the dates hang in bunches or fall to the ground and may be gathered by passers by. Even on the thin beach lines of Dubai, the date palms are a prominent presence.
Just what is not possible when you have money at your command! Even the desert can be greened with money, it seems. Roadside landscaping is not new or rare to most metros. What makes it significant here in Dubai is that it has been so effectively done in the desert. Import soil, import plants, bring water for irrigation – and hey presto you have that much craved for greenery.
Carpets of grass, beds of flowering plants, hedges of bushy plants – you name it and you can find it here. Look closely down at any one of these green patches and observe it at different times of the day. You will find dozens of thin water pipes crisscrossing the bed. In some places, water drips incessantly from the pipes into the ground. In other places, feathery light fountains of water are sprinkled from points on these pipes at regular intervals to keep the plants alive and growing.
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