Washingtonia robusta | |
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Mexican washingtonias planted in Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Arecales |
Family: | Arecaceae |
Tribe: | Trachycarpeae |
Genus: | Washingtonia |
Species: | W. robusta |
Binomial name | |
Washingtonia robusta | |
Synonyms [2] | |
Synonymy
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Washingtonia robusta, known by common name as the Mexican fan palm, Mexican washingtonia, or skyduster is a palm tree native to the Baja California peninsula and a small part of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. Despite its limited native distribution, W. robusta one of the most widely cultivated subtropical palms in the world. [3] It is naturalized in Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, Texas, parts of the Canary Islands, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Réunion, [4] [5] .[ citation needed ]
W. robusta grows to 25 m (82 ft) tall, rarely up to 30 m (98 ft). The leaves have a petiole up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long, and a palmate fan of leaflets up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) long. The petioles are armed with sharp thorns. The inflorescence is up to 3 m (10 ft) long, with numerous small, pale orange-pink flowers. The fruit is a spherical, blue-black drupe, 6–8 mm (1⁄4–5⁄16 in) diameter; it is edible, though thin-fleshed. [6]
It is one of two species in the genus Washingtonia . The other is the close relative Washingtonia filifera, which occupies a more northerly distribution. Compared with W. robusta, W. filifera has a thicker trunk and dull green leaves. [7]
This palm is native to the Baja California peninsula and Sonora. On the peninsula, it occurs from the Sierra de La Asamblea and the Baja California desert south into the Vizcaino region and the Sierra de La Giganta, and into the southern cape. [8] In Sonora, it occurs in canyons in the western half of the state, particularly in the palm oases of the Sierra El Aguaje north of Guaymas. It is relatively restricted, and is suspected to be a relict population in Sonora. It has the least number of plants in the palm oases that are shared with two other more numerous species, Brahea brandegeei and Sabal uresana . [7]
Like the closely related Washingtonia filifera (California fan palm), it is grown as an ornamental tree. Although very similar, the Mexican washingtonia has a narrower trunk (which is typically somewhat wider at the base), and grows slightly faster and taller; it is also somewhat less cold hardy than the California fan palm, hardy to about −8 °C (18 °F).
Field research conducted on W. robusta in its native habitat on the Baja California peninsula concluded that its potential longevity may exceed 500 years. [9] Supporting research by Barry Tomlinson and Brett Huggett states that there is "evidence for extreme longevity of metabolically functioning cells of considerable diversity in palm stems." [10] Many of the iconic "sky dusters" of Los Angeles that have survived the chainsaws of progress are documented in photography from the 19th century.
The Mexican fan palm is normally grown in the desert Southwestern United States, in areas such as California, Arizona, southern Nevada, extreme southwestern Utah and Texas. It also cultivated in the coastal areas of South Atlantic states and the Gulf Coast, including extreme southern North Carolina, coastal South Carolina, southern Georgia, and Florida. Along the Gulf Coast, Mexican fan palms can be found growing along the Florida west coast westward to South Texas.
Washingtonia × filibusta is a hybrid of W. robusta and W. filifera, and has intermediate characteristics of the two parents, especially greater tolerance of wet cold. [11]
Fouquieria columnaris, the Boojum tree or cirio is a tree in the ocotillo family, whose other members include the ocotillos. Some taxonomists place it in the separate genus Idria. It is nearly endemic to the Baja California Peninsula, with only a small population in the Sierra Bacha of Sonora, Mexico. The plant's English name, Boojum, was given by Godfrey Sykes of the Desert Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, and is taken from Lewis Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark".
The Sonoran Desert is a hot desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States. It is the hottest desert in both Mexico and the United States. It has an area of 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi).
Sierra de San Pedro Mártir is a mountain range located within southern Ensenada Municipality and southern Baja California state, of northwestern Mexico.
Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately 7 million acres, including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
Washingtonia is a genus of palms, native to the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. Both Washingtonia species are commonly cultivated across the Southern United States, the Middle East, southern Europe, and North Africa, where they have greatly hybridized.
The Baja California desert is a desert ecoregion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula. This ecoregion occupies the western portion of the Baja California peninsula, and occupies most of the Mexican states of Baja California Sur and Baja California. It covers 77,700 square kilometers. The climate is dry, but its proximity of the Pacific Ocean provides humidity and moderates the temperature. The flora mostly consists of xeric shrubs and over 500 species of recorded vascular plants.
Washingtonia filifera, the desert fan palm, California fan palm, or California palm, is a flowering plant in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the far southwestern United States and Baja California, Mexico. Growing to 15–20 m (49–66 ft) tall by 3–6 m (10–20 ft) broad, it is an evergreen monocot with a tree-like growth habit. It has a sturdy, columnar trunk and waxy, fan-shaped (palmate) leaves.
Mission Santa Gertrudis, originally to be called Dolores del Norte, was a Spanish mission established by the Jesuit missionary Georg Retz in 1752 in what is today the Mexican state of Baja California. It is located about 80 km (50 mi) north of San Ignacio, Baja California Sur.
The Sierra de Juárez, also known as the Sierra Juarez, is a mountain range located in Tecate Municipality and northern Ensenada Municipality, within the northern Baja California state of northwestern Mexico.
The Sierra Juárez and San Pedro Mártir pine–oak forests is a Nearctic temperate coniferous forests ecoregion that covers the higher elevations of the Sierra Juárez and Sierra San Pedro Mártir ranges of the Peninsular Ranges, of the northern Baja California Peninsula of Mexico. The pine–oak forests extend throughout the central portion of the Mexican state of Baja California and terminate near the border with the U.S. state of California.
Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park is a national park in the Mexican state of Baja California. The Park is part of the municipality of Ensenada, Baja California. The area was first explored by Native people then Europeans in 1701 by Eusebio Francisco Kino by Dominican orders.
The Sierra de la Giganta is a mountain range of eastern Baja California Sur state, located on the southern Baja California Peninsula in northwestern Mexico.
Brahea edulis, the Guadalupe palm or palma de Guadalupe, is a palm endemic to Guadalupe Island, Mexico, although a few stands have been planted elsewhere. It is a fan palm which grows 4.50 to 13 metres tall. It grows on the island between 400 and 1,000 metres above mean sea level (ASL), with this altitudinal zonation producing one of the few fog oases present in North America.
Brahea armata, commonly known as Mexican blue palm or blue hesper palm, is a large evergreen tree of the palm family Arecaceae, endemic to Baja California, Mexico. It is widely planted as an ornamental.
The Gulf of California xeric scrub is a xeric shrubland ecoregion of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.
The Gibraltar Botanic Gardens or La Alameda Gardens are a botanical garden in Gibraltar, spanning around 6 hectares. The Rock Hotel lies above the park.
The Sierra Pinta or Sierra Pintas are a narrow remote block faulted northwest-southeast trending mountain range, about 22 miles (35 km) long located in southwestern Arizona in the arid northwestern Sonoran Desert, just north of the Pinacate Reserve of northern Sonora, Mexico. The mountains derive their name from visitor descriptions of its multicolored hues when viewed at sunrise and sunset.
Dinapate wrightii, also known as the giant palm borer, is the largest species in the beetle family Bostrichidae, and sometimes a pest of palm trees, especially Washingtonia filifera and Washingtonia robusta. It is native to extreme southern California and possibly Baja California, and only commonly recorded from the Coachella Valley.
Flora of the Colorado Desert, located in Southern California. The Colorado Desert is a sub-region in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion of southwestern North America. It is also known as the Low Desert, in contrast to the higher elevation Mojave Desert or High Desert, to its north.