Date Palm Description
The Date palm is a very beautiful, elegant and tall palm. It slowly grows about 1 foot a year to a height of 80-100 feet.
The Medjool palm is often multi-trunked by nature. It forms several trunks from the base that are usually removed to leave one single trunk.
The trunk is covered with persistent, old leaf bases. When pruned, it reveals a distinctive diamond pattern.
The magnificent Date palm tree has a thick canopy of gorgeous bluish-green pinnate leaves. The leaves are stiff and have sharp spines at their bases. They are erect and ascending.
In the early spring Date palms start to flower. They produce flowers at early age. Female and male flowers grow on different trees. The date palms produce a dozen of large yellow to brown pods that encase the flower clusters. The pods pop naturally when mature and reveal the flowers inside. Female flowers are cream and yellow, and male flowers are white. One pod can encase from 5000 to 10000 flowers.
At the end of spring as the dates develops, female flower stalks grow to a length of 6 feet. Only female trees form dates, and only if male trees are nearby. Female date palms start to produce dates after 6-8 years.
Stalks of green unripe dates bend over as their weight increases. As mature they become orange-yellow, when fully ripe they are deep mahogany brown with glossy wrinkled skin. They are sweet, succulent and very delicious.
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