Very tall talipot palm trees in a park in Rio de Janeiro are flowering now. This happens only once in their lives. The trees were planted in the 1960s by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.

Near the end of its life, the palm sends up a tall center stem. It is covered with millions of small, creamy-white flowers above the large leaves. In Flamengo Park, many people stop to look up and take photos.

One visitor, Vinicius Vanni, said he hoped to collect seedlings and plant them. He said he may not see them flower, but future generations will.

The talipot palm comes from southern India and Sri Lanka. It can grow up to 30 meters tall and make about 25 million flowers. If the flowers are pollinated, they produce fruit that can grow into seedlings.

Talipot palms are also flowering in Rio’s Botanical Garden. Biologist Aline Saavedra said the trees were brought to Brazil together and grew under the same daylight. She said moving foreign species is strictly regulated, but these palms are not invasive because they grow slowly.