DATE PALMS
ALONG THE REFORMA
Last Saturday I hiked the tree-lined, 7.5-mile
long (12 km) Paseo de la Reforma both ways. One reason I'd do that is because despite its
being such a busy thoroughfare it's lined on both sides by trees, as you can see in the
skyscraper-taken photo at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Torre_Mayor_005.jpg.
There's a good variety of trees, too. There are eucalyptuses, pines, cottonwoods,
Sweetgums, ashes, junipers, pepper trees (genus Schinus) and more. Particularly I
enjoyed the palms, one of which you can see below:
That's the Canary Island Date Palm, PHOENIX CANARIENSIS, a true native of the Canary
Islands off the Atlantic coast of North Africa. It's such a beautiful and hardy tree --
able to survive dry spells, cold snaps, and apparently air pollution -- that it's planted
in tropical and semitropical areas worldwide, including along streets in California and
Florida.
Being in the genus Phoenix it's a "real" date palm, but it's
not THE Date Palm, which is Phoenix dactylifera. The Canary Island Date Palm does
produce edible dates but they're so small and their flesh is so thin that few bother to
eat them. Phoenix canariensis can grow up to 60 feet tall, though usually what
you see is only half that size.
In the photograph the diffuse, orangish, brushlike items among the tree's fronds are
maturing fruit clusters. The fruits are only about 3/4-inch long, compared to a date,
which might get two inches long.
Besides having smaller fruits, Canary Island Date Palms differ from "real"
Date Palms in that Date Palms sprout from their bases. Unless someone is cutting the extra
sprouts back, Date Palms appear in clusters. Canary Island Date Palms, in contrast, arise
on solitary trunks.
Date palms as a group are fairly easy to distinguish from other palm kinds. First,
their fronds are featherlike, instead of fanlike, as in the palmettos. After noticing
that, the only other feature to look for is to see that the fronds' lower leaflets, or
pinnae, are represented by stiff, long spines instead of regular soft, wide blades. The
spines are substantial, hard and sharp, so when you see them there's no doubt about it. |
