Archontophoenix cunninghamiana - King Palm

The king palm is a beautiful but less commonly seen than the common queen palm. I think they have a "cleaner" look to them, not sure why. Plants can get 50 plus feet but from what I have seen they are going to be around 30 here. Generally found as house plants though I have seen several houses with more than a half dozen planted. Since writing this they are showing up in many updated landscapes.

Leaves are large, 12-15' long, with 70-90 pinnae per side of the rachis dark green on the upper surface grayish green on the lower.  They are stiffer than the queen palm and arise from a smoothcrown shaft. The crownshaft is the base of the leaves where they attach to the stem.

Flowers are cool, though my neighbor hates them and usually cuts them off. Male and female flowers on the same stalk, males on the ends. The inflorescence bursts though the smooth crownshaft of the old leaf on the stem. Purplish color.

Misidentification:
Look for the smooth crownshaft - on the queen palm its rough, the leaves are stiffer, fewer in number, looks more like an areca palm leaf.

Location
Aptos
410 Gay Rd

Capitola
4957 Garnet

Live Oak
3636 Flora has several, along with queen palms for comparison, and across the street is a Queen Palm and a Canary Island palm.

3000 Pleasure Point Drive are a couple of small ones. Look at the Phoenix reclinata while there.

Santa Cruz
254 San Juan Ave, also has Syagrus

Phoenix reclinata - Senegal Date Palm

The Senegal Date Palm is a clumping palm capable of reaching 45' but more likely 25' here. These palms have thin stems and short leaves and a head with 20-40 leaves. Because the palms are clumping the stems tend to bend away from the others giving it the name reclinata. They have a real tropical look to them and the fruit show put on is something to see.

The pinnate dark green leaves are short ranging from 6-10' long with short leaflets and very sharp spines at the base of the leaves (very typical of Phoenix species). They have a sideways curve to them.

As I mentioned, the stems at the base of the palm are thin, but appear thicker near the crown because you are seeing leaf bases still attached.

Plants are dioecious, male and female plants.

Young fruit cluster forming in middle December along the coast.

Large specimen from The Huntington Collection.

Misidentification:

Not likely, very thin and tall, short leaves clumping habit

Location:

3024 Pleasure Point Drive (There is also a large Erythrina to the left of the driveway)

Santa Cruz

119 Effey St. is a large planting.

Rhopalostylis baueri - Norfolk Island Palm

An unbelievably beautiful plant, I love this palm. The first time I saw Rhopalosytlis was at the Strybing Arboretum. I came around this little path and pow, right into a grove of young palms.  Okay, It's actually a different species, R. sapida but who cares! 

The Norfolk Island Palm or (Naiu) grows as a solitary stem up to 30' (nice big ones at Strybing arboretum) with a beautiful smooth stem and green crown shaft.

Trunks hold the foliage very tightly spaced creating a dense head.

The leaves are pinnate, stiff, dark green, erect, V shaped, up to 9' long and 2-3' long leaflets. There is a short petiole (clear area with no leaflets). On young plants the foliage is shorter and much more upright.

I really like a palm with distinct crown shaft.

Male and female flowers on the same inflorescence coming out of the stem under or out of the crown shaft. You can see the start of the inflorescence below.

Almost smooth stem when older. I love this trunk.

Misidentification:
If you see more than one of these let me know, according to Luen Miller of Monterey Bay Nursery, it differs from the other species P. sapida by wider angled fronds. Other reference suggest R. baueri  has a less swollen crown shaft and a short petiole where R. sapida has none.

Location
4100 Opal Cliff Dr (Almost all of these plants are gone after a remodel to an ugly house.)
Along with Pindo Palm, a cool cycad, pygmy date palms, queen palms

Aptos

Cabrillo College Horticulture garden, by the entry gate to your right. From Luen Miller at Monterey Bay Nursery. Next to it is another donation from Luen - Trachycarpus takil. 
There are a few  Rhopalosytlis in the New Zealand garden at the Arboretum of UCSC.

Butia capitata - Pindo Palm

The Pindo Palm (Jelly Palm) is a pretty common sight in our county and I am glad because it provides a nice palm with the blue foliage that I like. They grow as solitary stem to about 20' in our area but maybe to 35' elsewhere.

Leaves are pinnate, 10-15' long, distinctly arched, V shaped in cross section (leaflets are sticking upright) usually bluish to silvery green colored. Very sharp modified leaflets along the leaf stalk.

Stems are covered with criss crossing leaf bases projecting from the stem at least 8" until very old then becoming smooth.

Flowers prolifically here, throwing up 3-5 spikes from woody bracts that look like boats. Flowers are unisexual but both on same inflorescence.

Fruit round, 1" orange and edible. These are not ripe yet.

Love the aloe with this palm - all spiky.

Misidentification
not sure, distinct pinnate palm with bluish and arching foliage, knobs on trunks.

Locations:

Aptos
7000 Soquel Drive in the thin planting strip
Twin Lakes Church sort of at the back with the school - near the Nursery school room.

Capitola
105 Wesley Street
4775 Opal Cliff Drive

Santa Cruz
126 Miles St

Phoenix dactylifera - Date Palm

The date palm, most likely from Iraq but has been an important food crop for a really long time over most of the middle east. And who doesn't like dates. This is also a great palm to line streets. Usually single trunked in landscapes, up to 70' and 30' wide. Literature suggests these are suckering palms, though I have only seen pictures of them doing so. Best seen in a bit warmer climates.

This one is at Cal Poly with an very full crown.

Leaves are 10-20' long, pinnate, with 150 - 12" long leaflets. Leaves tend to be more gray green than green and held upright and not strongly arching. The long sharp spines at the base of the leaf are modified leaflets.

Flowers are dioecious, males and female plants. Commercial orchards have one male per 20 or more females. Orange sprays as seen above.


Trunks are cool, obvious leaf scars forming a spiral pattern of knobs up the stem.

Misidentification:
Phoenix canariensis most likely. Typically thinner heads, fewer leaves more grey-green leaves and not as common. 

Location

Soquel

3430 Maplethorph Ln. Two nice old ones.

Santa Cruz 

Mission Plaza

Howea fosteriana - Kentia Palm

The Kentia palm is a rare site in Santa Cruz County and after the recent freeze we may have seen the last of them being planted. Too bad, they are beautiful palms. You may see more of them growing as house plants because they grow really well in shade and indoors with low light levels. I would guess there are more in yards that have out grown their space and pots indoors and end up outside, like one in our back yard.

The Kentia palm will grow to about 25-40' along the coast, but I have heard there is a large one in Santa Barbara. The specimen located on 41st Ave at the Pizza by the Slice parking lot is multi-stemmed, about 15' tall by 10-15 wide with beautiful drooping leaflets. This picture is after the recent cold snap (Dec 2013) of below freezing for several nights. Those are cycads in the front.

The evergreen pinnate leaves are long, 10 feet or so with a long smooth (no teeth) petiole that is flat on one side. Leaflets are pendulous, 2 plus feet long, darker green on the upper surface. I was noticing how beautiful it was just a week before taking these pictures.

I do like the trunk and the "netting" around the leaf bases. You can see how long the petioles are in this picture.

As you can see the trunk will be smooth, self shedding, green to tan with distinct leaf scars and usually multi-stemmed.

Misidentification:
Maybe a king palm due to the foliage being large clean green and sort of droopy but there is not crown shaft on the kentia palm.

Location:
Capitola
2180 41st Ave at Pizza my Heart

Santa Cruz
250 Oceanview Ave. Two of them, along with Butia capitata, and others.

Jubaea chilensis

The Chilean wine palm is from South America and is restricted to very small areas in southern Chile. And what a cool looking palm it is. Know for its massive straight trunk you can find at least 2 nice old specimens in town.

The common name is derived from the use of the sap and the heart (the growing point of the palm which once removed the tree dies) to make a wine or some sort of fermented drink.

This specimen below is the most commonly seen one in Santa Cruz and is located on the hillside below the mission facing downtown. Its next to a beautiful Bunya-Bunya tree.

The palm reportedly can reach 80' but I don't think so around here. It has a large crown of 40 or so pinnate leaves that are gray green in color and 12 or so feet long. When the leaves fall they do so very cleanly leaving the smooth trunk, like the Queen Palm, and unlike the Canary Island Palm. This is a specimen from Cal Poly SLO.

Palm flowers are usually very pretty if you stop to look at them. Usually a shade of yellow, they have a large bract that encloses the whole inflorescence (you can see it below, it looks somewhat like a boat. The male and female flowers are on the same inflorescence.

This is a close up of the smooth trunk. You can see the attachment points of the leaves and if you look closely you can see the little spots where the vascular tissues were connected.

This is a "young" specimen at the palm collection at Lake Merritt in Oakland. Worth a trip if you like palms.

Misidentification; Most likely you will think it's a Canary Island Palm because of the leaves, or perhaps a date palm, but the date palm trunks are quite thin and the Canary Island palms do not have a smooth bark.

Location.
Santa Cruz. On the hillside behind the old mission overlooking downtown, just above the intersection of Mission and Center St.

Santa Cruz. Corner of Locust and Pine Place. This one has a funny story. My class was looking at the great purple beech on Green and Cross St when the owner came out very excited. Not always a good thing. She was so excited to tell her sister that someone was talking about her tree, because her sister was always bragging about her special tree. She told us where it was and also told us that the rumor was that there was a line of wine palms planted from the mission to the water and these are the only two left.