Washingtonia filifera - California Fan Palm

The California native fan palm is such a cool palm tree and its too bad that we are just a bit north and close to the coast for these to grow really well. Growing to 50 feet in its native habitat ours are likely to be about 30 tall and 10 wide. Trunks are often appearing wider with the skirt of old foliage. These in the picture are not all there anymore, someone redid the landscape and pulled out all but three trees. Ouch.

Heads are thin, usually fewer leaves than the mexican fan palm, and should have lots of old leaves attached.

Leaves evergreen, palm shaped, grey-green in color, 12 or so feet long counting the petiole, the fan part about 5 to 6' diameter. Leaf segments dividing about half way to the base of the leaf. Leaf edges usually showing lots of white fibers, hence the filifera, more so than W. robusta and the tips of the leaflets weeping downward.

Trunks are very stout, thick, and almost cylindrical to the ground, sort of like the Chilean Palm and very unlike the Mexican Fan Palm. 2-3 feet wide if the skirt has been removed.

These show the persistent leaves very typical of the species. Located at Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden.

Flowers in august, but I have never seen them do so.

Misidentification:
Washingtonia robusta has a much thinner stem, more leaves in the head and less "thread" from the leaf margins, though that is hard to see at 40-50' in the air. Picture below shows 2 robustas (tall and far right and the filifera on the left.

Location:
Santa Cruz
On the three way corner of Chico/Auburn/Modesto only 3 left, better hurry

There are several on Morrissey Drive interplanted with Washingtonia robusta.
From the highway towards Soquel Dr. 462, 439, 428, 433, 331, 230

Brahea edulis - Guadalupe Fan Palm

I like this little palm. They have great foliage, nice flowering spikes and the trunk is self cleaning. Reportedly growing to 35' it's likely to reach 20' with an almost equal spread in our area. Slow growing, so be patient or thankful it will not overpower your yard.The Guadalupe fan palm is also quite tolerant to cold temperatures, which is always interesting when a plant native to an island is cold hard.

Leaves are palmate, 8' long and almost as wide, relatively short petiole and smooth without long sharp spines. Medium green color.

Trunk is often described as elephant leg like, which is pretty good. The leaves are self shedding.

Plants are monoecious, the flowering stalk is long and arching, cream colored flowers.

Fruit is round, about an inch in diameter, turns black and produced in huge quantities.

Misidentification:
Looks a lot like a small Washingtonia but has no spines on the petiole.

Location:
Captiola
Corner of Monterey and Escalona are two, the don't like the palms to bloom unfortunately.

Aptos

532 Seacliff Dr.

Brahea armata - Blue Hesper Palm

The Blue Hesper Palm is a beautiful blue silver palm that could be planted more frequently in our landscapes. It is a native to Baja California. Growing to 40 plus feet elsewhere, it rarely makes 25 in cultivation. Though the closer you get to Baja the taller they will grow. When this palm flowers (typically in January) it is a sight to see. We were in San Diego and there were some blooming but I could not stop the car…. This one is at Stanford University.

The palmate leaves are bluish silver in color, 4-6 feet wide with a 3' long petiole. Petiole is armed with short stout yellow spines. Older foliage is held upright while the older leaves are facing down giving the plant a rounded canopy. As seen from below...

 The yellow spines.

Flowers are spectacular, though I have not seen them bloom here. In spring to summer (according to most references though I have seen them in San Diego blooming in winter) the flowers emerge out of the canopy on 15 foot drooping inflorescences, yellow over all color, monoecious.  This large one is on the campus of Cal Poly SLO.

Fruit are round, maturing brown.

Trunk is covered with thin leaf bases when young but will eventually become tan and smooth.

The leaf bases are quite thin, though they don't seem like they should be.

One of several specimens at the UC Berkeley BG.

Misidentification:
Unless its really small, not likely. However we do have a lot of Chamaerops humilis around that when young look somewhat like these but have much smaller leaves. Look for the yellow spines.

Location:
Santa Cruz
Riverside Drive and San Lorenzo- though they were recently pruned and have few leaves left they should look better in the coming years.

Soquel Drive and Mission at the Robobank at the corner. Beautiful smaller specimens.