Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Phoenix canariensis
Common name
Canary Island date palm
Family
Arecaceae
Where found
Naturalised amongst cultivated plants in parks and roadside plantings, often invading neighbouring disturbed natural vegetation. along streams. Sydney area south to Shellharbour. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced tree to 20 m high. Basal pinnae short, thick and extremely sharp-pointed. Fleshy layer of the fruit rather thin. Trunk with leaf scars. Leaves clustered at the top of the trunk, to about 600 cm long, 500 mm wide, compound, with about 160-200 leaflets, each to about 40 cm long, 30 mm wide (when flattened), pinnae stiff, deeply channelled. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers yellowish, with 6 'petals' each about 4–5 mm long. Flowers in branched clusters to about 80 cm long or more. Fruit yellow to reddish, 15-23 mm long.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Phoenix~canariensis (accessed 22 January, 2021)
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