Family: Arecaceae, Palm view all from this family

Description Tall palm with massive, unbranched trunk and very large, fan-shaped leaves.
Height: 20-60' (6-18 m).
Diameter: 2-3' (0.6-0.9 m).
Leaves: evergreen; numerous, spreading around top; if not burned or cut, old dead leaves hang down against trunk in thick thatch. Leafstalks 3-5' (0.9-1.5 m) long; stout, with hooked spines along edges. Leaf blades 3-5' (0.9-1.5 m) in diameter; gray-green, split into many narrow, folded, leathery segments, with edges frayed into many threadlike fibers.
Trunk: gray, smooth, with horizontal lines and vertical fissures.
Flowers: 3/8" (10 mm) long; with funnel-shaped, deeply 3-lobed white corolla: short-stalked, slightly fragrant; many together in much-branched clusters 6-12" (1.8-3.7 m) long; drooping from leaf bases.
Fruit: 3/8" (10 mm) in diameter; elliptical black berry, with thin, sweetish, edible pulp, 1 elliptical brown seed.

Habitat Moist soils along alkaline streams and in canyons of mountains in Colorado and Mojave deserts.

Range SE. California (San Bernardino County to San Diego County), SW. Arizona (Kofa Mountains, Yuma County; also S. Yavapai County where perhaps introduced) and N. Baja California; at 500-3000' (152-914 m).

Discussion The largest native palm of the continental United States as well as the only western species, it is also known as "Desert-palm." Another name is "Petticoat-palm" from the shaggy mass of dead leaves hanging against the trunk. Groves are in Palm Canyon near Palm Springs and in Joshua Tree National Monument. It is cultivated widely as an ornamental along streets and avenues in southern California, southern Arizona, the Gulf States east to Florida, and in subtropical regions around the world. Indians ate the berries, both fresh and dry, and ground the seeds into meal. This genus honors the first president of the United States.