WASHINGTONIA FILIFERA

Botanical Name: Washingtonia Filifera

Common Names: California Fan Palm

Alternate Botanical Names: Brahea Filifera and numerous others

Visual Characteristics: Elegance eminates from this queen of the desert. Mature specimins are often tall trees with gray green leaves or fronds, known to botany as Palmate. Their trunks are thick and resemble a column, which is an especially helpful diagnostic indicator when compared to Washingtonia Robusta, a close relative which becomes more slender toward the top. California Fan Palm trunks are also often surrounded by dead leaves, which remain in Marcescent manner, completely obscuring the bark beneath. These withered fronds can protect the plant in the event of fire, but in its absence, become inhabited by birds and invertibrates. The trees often occur naturally in oases throughout the desert regions, relicts of a more abundant past.

Native To 29 Palms: Yes
Native To Adjacent Regions: Yes

Occurance In Neighborhoods: Common

Occurance In Rural Areas: Common

Use by Indigenous Cultures: Tales abound wherein infructescences of small but sweet dates were harvested, processed, and stored for later use. They were also eaten fresh, or cooked. The leaves were dried and worked into materials for housing, storage, small tools and utincils. There are also accounts of cultivation within its endemic and adjacent ranges.

Sentiments: Mystic she sway with green and gray, Guarding the gates in the glare of the day, At night stars of white shone through tight little teeth, Abiding by siding on slants underneath, A bond beyond frond in the cool evening air, so pretty the moon as it shines on her hair.