For all the times I’ve peered at a coworker’s plant and told them whether the plant is male, female, or both, it looks really weird to see a gender-specific pronoun used with a plant.
I think I would have said “male tree” and continued to use the neutral pronoun to refer to it.
I agree, this detail is part of the modern culture thing to personify the earth and its components.
I’m a bit confused. The author refers to the palm as he, but says it has flowers. Even if it is not self fertile, wouldn’t it be possible to fertilize the flowers with pollen from another palm?