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Phoenix
Also called Date Palms, Date, Date Palm
Phoenix is a genus of 14 palm species, including the date palm (P. dactylifera) and the Canary Island date palm, mostly grown outdoors or as large ornamentals. Most come from semi-arid regions but often grow near groundwater, so they are best kept sunny and deep-watered.
Phoenix is a genus of 14 species of palms, native to an area starting from the Canary Islands in the west, across northern and central Africa, to the extreme southeast of Europe (Crete), and continuing throughout southern Asia, from Anatolia east to southern China and Malaysia. The diverse habitats they occupy include swamps, deserts, and mangrove sea coasts. Most Phoenix species originate in semi-arid regions, but usually occur near high groundwater levels, rivers, or springs. The genus is unusual among members of subfamily Coryphoideae in having pinnate, rather than palmate leaves; tribe Caryoteae also have pinnate or bipinnate leaves.
The palms were more numerous and widespread in the past than they are at present.
A majority of the forest palms grow under the shade of dominating forests trees along fragile hill slopes and stream courses in warm, humid conditions. The palms are found growing on a wide variety of soils, often extending to degraded forest margins in grasslands. In the tropics, most are found below 1,250 m (4,100 ft) altitude. Branching of the aerial trunk is rare and is mainly induced by injury to the terminal growing bud. Flowering and fruit are regular and annual.
The fruit of P. dactylifera, the date of commerce, is large with a thick layer of fruit pulp, edible, very sweet and rich in sugar; the other species have only a thin layer of fruit pulp. The central soft part of the stem of P. rupicola, P. acaulis, and P. humilis is a rich source of starch. Palms are felled to extract this central 'pith' which is dried, powdered, stored and used for preparation of bread in the Indian subcontinent. The P. canariensis sap is cooked to a sweet, thick syrup. P. sylvestris Roxb. is widely used in India as a source of sugar. The sugary sap from some African palms yields country liquor on fermentation (palm wine).
Cape Verde Island Date Palm · Canary Island date palm · Date palm · Mangrove date palm · Senegal date palm · Dwarf Date Palm · Cliff date palm · Wild date palm
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phoenix (plant) by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
