Date Palm

Date Palm, common name for several related trees found in tropical regions. The common date palm is native to northern Africa, southwest Asia, and India and is cultivated extensively in hot, dry regions throughout the world. The trunk is straight and rough and grows to a height of up to 18 m (up to 60 ft). It bears a head of waxy-green, barbed leaves, about 3 m (about 9 ft) long, and a number of branching spikes that, on the female tree, bear 200 to 1,000 dates each. A cluster of dates weighs up to 12 kg (up to 25 lb), and the annual yield of a single tree may reach 270 kg (600 lb). The tree begins to bear about the eighth year, reaches maturity at 30 years, and begins to decline at about 100 years. From earliest times, fertilization has been aided by cutting off the male flower cluster just before the stamens ripen and suspending it among the flowers of the female tree.

In many parts of northern Africa, Iran, and Arabia, date palms are the main wealth of the people, and dates are the chief article of food. The fleshy part of the fruit contains about 58 percent sugar and 2 percent each of fat, protein, and minerals. Leaf stalks are used for basketry and wickerwork, leaves are woven into bags and mats, and fiber from both is made into cordage.

Another species, the sugar date palm, or toddy palm, is cultivated in India for its sap. The sap may be boiled down to form jaggery, or gur, a crude sugar; or it may be used as a fresh beverage, or to make palm wine, from which arrack, a rumlike liquor, may be distilled.

Date palms are often cultivated in the southern United States for ornamental effect in regions too cool for the fruit to ripen. The blue date palm grows in clumps and has silvery blue foliage; the pygmy date palm is a dwarf species that is also popular in the north as a greenhouse plant or houseplant.

Scientific classification: Date palms belong to the family Arecaceae (formerly Palmae). The common date palm is classified as Phoenix dactylifera, the sugar date palm as Phoenix sylvestris, the blue date palm as Phoenix zeylanica, and the pygmy date palm as Phoenix roebelenii.