Phoenix (plant)
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| Missing image Phoenix.canariensis.jpg Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) | ||||||||||||
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Phoenix abyssinica |
Phoenix is a genus of about 15-20 species of palms, native from the Canary Islands east across northern and central Africa, the extreme southeast of Europe (Crete), and southern Asia from Turkey east to southern China and Malaysia.
The stems are single, or suckering and clumped, and vary from 1-30 m tall. The leaves are pinnate, 1-6 m long. The plants are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants; pollination is by wind. The flowers are inconspicuous yellowish-brown and about 1 cm wide, but grouped on conspicuous large multi-branched panicles 30-90 cm long. The fruit is a drupe, 1-7 cm long, yellow to red-brown or dark purple when mature, with one seed. The fruit of P. dactylifera 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.