Washingtonia filifera – “California Fan Palm”

Also Known As: Desert Palm, Desert Fan Palm, Petticoat Palm
Family: Palm (Arecaceae)
Bloom Period: Feb-Jun
Form: Unbranched tree
Habitat: Near water, such as oases
Leaves: Distinctively fan-shaped and accordion-folded
Translation: In one of the most inexplicable cases of naming a plant after a person, “Washingtonia” is named for George Washington, who has exactly squat to do with this plant; can we please rename this genus, maybe after one of the tribes who tended its groves?; “filifera” is Latin for “thread-bearing,” and refers to the leaf edges.
Notes: Emblematic of the southern California desert, and is commemorated in the names of various towns – Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Twenty Nine Palms, etc. – where it is planted as a landscape ornament along streets and in parks. Fruits are sweet and taste like dates. Annually, each tree puts out up to ten fruit stalks that can each produce 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of fruit, so in a good year (read “wet”), a harvest of 400 pounds (180 kilograms) per tree is not unusual. California Fan Palm is threatened by agricultural and urban water projects that draw down water tables. Very young plants shown in photo, bottom right.
Native American Uses: Native Americans set up villages at oasis sites and planted the tree throughout its natural range. They harvested the fruit by hooking a stalk with a long, notched branch from the Desert-Willow (Chilopsis linearis). The Cahuilla consumed the fruits several ways: fresh off the tree, soaked in water to make a beverage, sun-dried for the future, made into jelly, and combined with a flour from the ground seeds as a porridge. The Cocopa squeezed juice from the fruits and added water for a drink, and Gila River Pima children ate the raw fruits. The Cahuilla also used the fronds to flail seed pods and to wind- and waterproof living structures, the branches to make cooking utensils and bows, and the leaves to make hoops for children’s toys. Ceremonially, they made images of the dead out of the leaves and burned them as part of memorial rites. Both they and the Cocopa used the seeds in gourd rattles. The leaves and fibers were utilized by many Native American tribes in basketry and to make clothing.
Animal Associations: California Fan Palm is an animal magnet. Cactus Wrens find shelter in the “skirt” of old leaves on the trunks. Arizona Hooded Orioles and Scott’s Orioles construct their nests from the leaf threads. California Treefrogs sing in it, Western Yellow Bats roost in it and Red-Spotted Toads breed in the water beneath it. Coyotes help distribute the seed in their scat. Flowers are eaten by larvae of Palm Flower Moth. The grubs of the Giant Palm Borer beetle tunnel through the trunks, eating as they go, and can eventually kill older trees.