California fan palm, which is also known as desert fan palm, happens to be my favorite palm, and coincidentally, happens to be the only palm that is native to California. I have written a bit of trivia about it since this recycled article posted three years ago.
What are they doing out there, in those two pots in the island of such a vast parking lot? It is hard to say from this distance. They are so isolated. They might be happy and healthy summer blooming annuals. They might just be weeds. They could be plotting World domination. Plants can do some weird things in isolation.
Mexican fan palm is the most familiar palm in Los Angeles. Some know them as skydusters because they are so tall and lanky, and do not seem to have anything better to do than lazily brush against the undersides of clouds as they float by. In Los Angeles, there are not many clouds to keep them busy, and there is not even much smog anymore. Mexican fan palms certainly do not make much shade, and because they are so tall, their little shadows land in neighbors’ yards. They are so tall…
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Tony Tomeo 
I remember all the tall palm trees along the streets when I was in California. It was quite a sight for an old country boy from Missouri. Dr. Skinner, being from the area, wasn’t a big fan. She said rats lived in the dead leaves… While I did enjoy seeing the palms, some of them did have a lot of dead leaves (or whatever you call them). Thanks for sharing and bringing back a few memories of L.A.
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More of them had long beards of dead leaves back many years ago. In the 1970s, palms were shaggy like people were. In the 1980s, they were pruned and groomed, and the big Canary Island date palms got the ‘pineapple cuts’ which were quite stylish, but unfortunately, all that pruning spread disease. Through the 1990s, many of the Canary Island date palms died out both because of pink rot, and also because of age. Nowadays, they are getting replaces with common (fruiting) date palms, which are not as pretty. They were less expensive because they were recycled from date orchards that were displaced by urban development around Las Vegas. Those that are from the same orchard are identical cultivars, so are more uniform than the Canary Island date palms. Without their male pollinators, they make no messy fruit.
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