Palms

Most Widely Cultivated Urban Trees

• Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)

• Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus)

• Mexican Fan Palm ( Washingtonia robusta)

Palms

• Trunks grow taller not thicker

• Do not grow annual rings of wood

• Monocot• Most are frost tender• All leaves arise from

one apical bud• Single unbranched

stem

Feather and Fan Palms

Palms

• Feather Palms-Pinnately divided leaves• Lower leaflets with or without spines

• Fan Palms-palmately divided leaves• Petiole margins lined with spiny teeth

or petiole margins not armed

Feather Palms(pinnately lobed fronds)

Jubaea chilensisChilean Wine Palm

Jubaea chilensisChilean Wine Palm

• Feather Palm• Pinnately divided

leaves• Lower leaflets without

spines• Trunk larger than 3

feet at maturity

Phoenix canariensis Canary Island date palm palm family, Arecaceae

•Native to Canary Islands•Big, heavy trunked, to 60 ft.•Hardy to 20 degrees, tolerates seacoast conditions where warm enough

•Dying in Los Angeles; succumbing to Fusarium wilt, a fungal disease

•Brought to California by the Mission Fathers

• Fronds deep green with many leaflets

• no petiole --spiky leaflets all the way to base of frond

• Young fronds very stiff-spiny

Phoenix canariensis Canary Island date palm palm family, Arecaceae

• Young fronds very stiff-spiny!

Phoenix dactylifera, Date palm

Date PalmPhoenix dactylifera

• 17 species native to tropical africa and asia

• 6 of these species cultivated in North America

• Date Palms grown commercially in California and Arizona

Phoenix dactylifera ‘Deglet Noor’, Deglet Noor date palm

Phoenix dactylifera, Date palm

Palm family, Arecaceae

Feather-leaf, leaflets sharp-tipped, pale green and held stiffly on top of palms

large and stiff for small gardens; dates formed only on female plant if plant mature and male is present; likes water (desert oases in Middle East);

THIS is the palm of Hilltop Drive (P. dactylifera ‘Deglet Noor’)

Fan Palms(palmately lobed fronds)

Chamaerops humilis Mediterranean fan palmpalm family, Arecaceae

Clumping palm, to 20 x 20 ft (piranhas run in schools)Survives 0 degrees brieflyUse in containers, mass under trees, hedge; takes poor soil and strong winds, regular water

Chamaerops humilis, Mediterranean fan palm

“piranha teeth”

Chamaerops humilis

Mediterranean fan palm

ID: fan leaves cut at least 2/3 of way to stalk—palmately lobed

teeth on frond stalk are long and widely-separated (piranha teeth)

Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palm

palm family, Arecaceae

Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palm

palm family, Arecaceae

• Tall plant, to 100 ft., trunk slim and maybe curved, compact head of foliage, good for large properties, avenues, parkways

• Hardy to 20 degrees; damaged in the cold winter, but OK if in ground

Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palm

• ID: Palmate leaf divided about 1/3 to ½ of way to leaf stalk

•Leaf stalk heavily toothed, teeth often golden (“shark tooth”)

Most widely grown palm tree

“ Washingtonia palms are well known for being a large apartment complex for all sorts of vermin from rats and mice, spiders and scorpions and all sorts of birds”

Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palmpalm family, Arecaceae