Phoenix canariensis Chabaud

Spice Fruit In the University

Family: PALMAE

Genus: Phoenix

Catalan common name: Fasser de jardí. Palmera de Canàries.

Spanish common name: Palma canaria. Palma de jardín. Palmera de Canarias.

Province distribution: Balearic Islands.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza.

Uses and properties: Symbolic uses.

Life-forms: Macrophanerophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Rocky coastlines. Garden plants. Non-saline wetlands (intermittent watercourses, streams, artesian wells, ditches). Gardens.

Description: A palm that is similar in appearance to Phoenix dactylifera, but has a shorter and studier trunk, some 6-8 m, but can reach up to 12 to 14 m and rarely above 20 m. In taller examples of this species, the trunk resembles a thick column decorated by leaf scars. The crown is formed by a greater number of palm leaves than P. dactylifera, with each successive leaf wider, with a more intense green, and a greater leaf quantity and density. Folioles are rigid and pointed. The petioles have large spines at the leaf base; you can observe an entire range of transition between these true spines and the folioles. The leaves are a lustrous green, with the under story folioles less rigid and green in colour. Fruit is 1.5 cm in length, dry and inedible.

Observations: This is one of the more frost resistant palms.