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Phoenix canariensis
Also called Canary Palm, Canary Island Palm, Canary Date Palm, Pineapple Palm
A large, solitary feather palm native to the Canary Islands, grown as a tall landscape tree in warm, dry-summer climates. It is slow growing and best given full sun and well-drained soil, and it is often grown outdoors rather than as a houseplant.
Phoenix canariensis, the Canary Island date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Northwestern Africa. It is a relative of Phoenix dactylifera, the true date palm. It is the natural symbol of the Canary Islands, together with the canary Serinus canaria.
The Canary Island date palm is typically cultivated in wet-winter or Mediterranean climates, but also in wet-summer or humid subtropical climates such as eastern Australia and the south-eastern United States. It is also increasingly being cultivated in higher latitude oceanic climates, such as Ireland, the UK, and the Channel Islands. It can be cultivated where temperatures rarely fall below −10 or −12 °C (14 or 10 °F) for extended periods, although it will require some protection if cold periods are longer than normal. Younger specimens, without a sizeable trunk, are more prone to freezing. It is a slow-growing tree, increasing in height by up to 60 cm (24 in) per year, and is propagated exclusively by seed. Mature P. canariensis are often used in ornamental landscaping and can be fairly readily collected and transplanted to a new planting location.
The palm is easily identified by its crown of leaves and trunk characteristics. Canary Island date palms are often pruned and trimmed to remove the lower, older leaves.
The Canary Island date palm appears in many notable examples of landscaping, particularly in the American state of California. According to legend, it was first planted in what is now San Diego in 1769, by Spanish missionary Junípero Serra, a founder of the California mission system. Though this story is likely false, Spanish missionaries did cultivate true date palms, rather than Canary Island date palms, in California in the late 1700s for the fruit. However, a Canary Island date palm was famously known as "The Serra Palm"—the palm supposedly planted by Junipero Serra in San Diego—before the tree's death in 1957.
Cape Verde Island Date Palm · Date palm · Mangrove date palm · Senegal date palm · Dwarf Date Palm · Cliff date palm · Wild date palm · Date palm
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phoenix canariensis 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
