~ Phoenix reclinata ~
Senegal Date Palm, Reclining Date Palm
Height: 50' Growth rate: Medium/Slow Climate zones: 8-17 to 22° Origin: Africa
Phoenix reclinata is a pinnate, slow growing palm native to Africa which evolved to be heavily armed with spines, and have the ability to sprout multiple heads in response to heavy grazing animals such as giraffes and elephants. If a grazing animal caused the main trunk to die, the palm would then respond by producing more trunks. There are some clumps of P. reclinata in Africa that may be thousands of years old due to this constant replacement of the main stems. There is really no way to accurately determine the age of these palm clumps (or any palm for that matter) since palms produce no annual cambium growing rings. The main feature of this palm is the fact that it forms a multiple trunked clump as mentioned above. The primary trunk grows more or less straight up, then the secondary "pup" trunks sprout from the base of the primary trunk and grow out at an angle much less than vertical, and then slowly bend up toward vertical, thus producing a palm "grove" of multiple trunks gracefully curving up toward the sky. This palm is very tolerant of seaside wind and salt conditions and can be successfully grown within a stone's throw of high tide. Recommended throughout Northern California low elevation climates.
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