Are palm trees native to Arizona?

• The Date palms, Queen palms and Mexican fan palms that dot our landscape are not indigenous
• The state's one naturally occurring variety is the California fan palm found within Palm Canyon
• Palm trees are what garden designers call "architectural plants"

Believe it or not — with literally thousands of them scattered around the Valley — most palm trees are not native to Arizona.

I know, they're everywhere, and a slew of area landmarks pay homage to the Aracaceae plant family like the Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix, Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, the Mission Palms Hotel in Tempe, Palm Lanes in Phoenix and the campus of Arizona State University; the list goes on.

Date palms, Queen palms and Mexican fan palms dot our landscape as frequently as sunsets, snowbirds and Arizona Cardinals fans. It's hard to believe they're not indigenous.

One native palm

The one Arizona outlier (Isn't there always one?) is the California fan palm only found within rugged Palm Canyon at the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge between Quartzite and Yuma. But even those are thought to have come by coyote or bird droppings thousands of years ago. They're transplants just like the others.

Mark Fleming, curator of botany at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum of Tucson, says Washingtonia filifera, or the California fan palm, is the state's only naturally occurring variety and that they are found in pockets around southern California, Northern Mexico and one or two pockets in Arizona.

“Why are people drawn to them for landscaping?” he asks. Perhaps “an iconic association with the concept of a desert oasis,” he says. “They symbolize relief from the desert and the ability for humans to survive in a hot, dry climate.”

Plus, they just look cool.

Palm trees are what garden designers call "architectural plants," Fleming says, that are “used as accents in the garden,” at the golf course down the street, along the pond at the park; you get the picture.

“I like the palm tree 'beards' because they provide shelter for many desert animals,” he says, “but most people don’t, for the exact same reason.”

And like most non-natives, they've learned to adapt. So where do they come from?

Varieties

• Mexican fan palms, the most common variety and the one that sprouts those pesky seed pods each summer, derive from northern Mexico, but not necessarily the Sonoran Desert. They're also the ones you'll see most gardeners and arborists risking their lives to scale and trim at 40 bucks a pop.

• Queen palms thrive in Brazil and Argentina, but are fairly temperamental in our scorching summer heat and winter frost. They're noted for their modest height and graceful fronds.

• Date palms hail from the Middle East and North Africa and for millennia have fed people as they are about 50 percent sugar by weight. Date palms are marked by thick trunks, messy pods if not trimmed each spring, and dangerously sharp spikes. Not thorns, five-inch long spikes.

• As its name implies, Royal palms speak of luxury and aristocracy. Perhaps it's that smooth, deep green skin toward its peak. You'll find these native to south Florida, the Caribbean and tropical portions of Mexico.

So when you're sipping that cold drink around the pool, admiring your freshly trimmed palm trees, toast the visionaries who brought them to the desert.

Contact “Only in Arizona” columnist Mark Nothaft at marknothaft.onlyinaz@gmail.com. Send him the weird and fun facts and places found #OnlyInArizona.

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