Torbay - The English Riviera - Cabbage Trees

The west coast of the British Isles benefits from the Gulf Stream, an Atlantic current which originates in the Gulf of Mexico. This explains why the average summer temperature in Devon at a latitude of 50 degrees north of 15-17ºC is higher than that of Invercargill in February of 14.3 degrees even though the latitude of Invercargill is 46 degrees south.
Devon's climate is hardly tropical but as one of the warmest places in the UK it has positioned itself as a tourist destination - the 'English Riviera'.

This nomenclature is helped by the presence of the Torbay Palm which has a tropical appearance and grows extensively in the South West. However the Torbay Palm is in fact ti kouka, (Cordyline australis) the New Zealand Cabbage Tree, an example of reverse colonisation. It was introduced from New Zealand in the nineteenth Century.

The story is told in a book with photographs by Wayne Barrar.

BOOK TO STAY NEAR HERE