Washingtonia Robusta

This tall, vigorous, stylish and elegant palm quickly grows a stout trunk, wider at the bottom, and rather thinner than its sister species Washingtonia filifera. Grown worldwide, it is probably most famous from the avenue plantings in California. Trunks are topped by a crown of large (1.5m wide or more) fan leaves that have loose threaded margins and often a purplish brown patch at the base of the leaf stalk. Although sometimes scorched by frost below -5C or so, it quickly regrows when the weather improves and replaces the damaged leaves. It is native to western Sonora and Baja California Sur in northwestern Mexico.