There are over 2000 species of palm tree, in Lanzarote you will generally see these two types:
Phoenix Canariensis / Canary Date Palm
This palm tree is a protected species and found all over the canary islands. The trees are slow growing but can reach a height of 20 metres over a hundred years and have a thick trunk which can be cut in various designs when trimming leaves. The leaves are over 6 metres in length with sharp spikes at the base of the stem, and the top is shaped like a fan or ball depending on when it was last trimmed. There are male and female specimens, the male has yellow/white flowers and the female produces orange red fruit during spring / summer. The támaras (fruit) look like small dates but are not generally eaten although edible. The Canarian palm tree was valued by the locals and is still utilised today, the guanches used to eat the young leaves and fruit and the leaves also were made into baskets, hats, brooms, fishing nets and even clothing. On La Gomera they extract the sap to produce palm honey.
The way to identify the Canarian palm is by the leaf, it is long and shaped like a banana!
The best place to see the Canarian palms is in Haría, the valley of a thousand palms.
Washingtonia Filifera & Robusta / Californian & Mexican Fan Palm
There are two kinds of Washington palm found in the Canaries, the Washingtonia Filifera is better known as the Californian Fan Palm and the Washingtonia Robusta the Mexican Fan Palm. These trees are fast growing with plenty of water reaching heights of up to 25 metres and can withstand being near the sea. Both of the Washingtonias have leaves up to 2 metres in length, the Mexican species has a slimmer trunk. They have small white flowers that branch out from between the leaves and small brown fruit.
The way to identify the Washingtonia palm is that the leaf is fan shaped like an open hand!
This photo by Palm specialist Darren Blockley (www.palmtreespecialist.com) shows the two species side by side.
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