Red weevil: Uruguay confronts a powerful new threat to its palm trees

Palm trees stand on Buceo beach in Montevideo as authorities continue to battle the red palm weevil, an insect imported from Southeast Asia that devours palm trees

Palm trees in Uruguay are more than just plants, they are icons, much like olive groves for Greeks or cherry blossoms for the Japanese.

The treasured trees lining one of the world’s longest sidewalks through Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, and adorn the swanky Atlantic beach resorts of Punta del Este have recently come under ruthless attack.

Across the small South American country, palm trees are falling prey to a fierce enemy measuring just 5 centimetres in length: The red palm weevil.

First the elegant fronds droop. Then the tell-tale holes appear in the trunk. Soon enough, the tree is tilting toward collapse.

The weevil has devoured thousands of Uruguay’s palm trees since its unexplained arrival from Southeast Asia in 2022. But authorities are only now waking up to the threat as the landscape of municipalities transforms and fears grow that the country’s beloved palms could be wiped out.

“We are late in addressing this,” Estela Delgado, the national director of biodiversity at the Ministry of Environment, acknowledged last month.