Canary Island date palm

How to identify a Canary Island date palm

A very large palm with one stout trunk, up to a metre or more thick and patterned with the scars of old leaf bases, topped by a big crown of arching feather fronds up to about 6 m long. Each frond carries stiff, folded leaflets up to 40 cm long, and the lowest leaflets are reduced to short, thick, extremely sharp spines. Long sprays of small yellowish flowers appear among the fronds in summer, and female palms then carry bunches of oval dates 1.5 to 2.3 cm long that ripen yellow to orange-red. Male and female flowers grow on separate palms.

Growing a Canary Island date palm in Brisbane

Canary Island date palms are very hardy: they handle heat, frost, dry spells, salt spray, pollution and compacted ground, and grow in clay, loam or sand. That toughness made them popular in parks and big gardens, but at 15 to 18 metres with a 6 to 8 metre crown, the Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia say they don't suit suburban gardens. Seedlings grow slowly, then speed up once a trunk forms. Seed carried by birds and rats has let the palm go wild in southern states, and a national weed key says it may be naturalising in south-east Queensland.

What to watch out for

The spines on the lower part of every frond are the big hazard. They are needle-sharp, can pierce leather, and fallen fronds land with the spines pointing up, where a child, pet or gardener can step on them. Gardening Australia warns these wounds can get infected and advises having a broken-off spine treated at hospital rather than digging at it yourself. The palm grows huge, and birds and rats spread its seed, so it has become an environmental weed in two southern states, though it isn't on Brisbane City Council's weed list. Hunter Water rates it a high risk to sewer pipes.

• Spines. The thick spines on the lower part of every frond are extremely sharp, can pierce leather and often carry bacteria and fungi, so wounds can become infected.
• Size. It grows 15 to 18 metres tall on a trunk a metre or more thick, and the Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia say it isn't suited to suburban gardens.
• Seedlings. Birds and rats carry the seed into bushland; it has become an environmental weed in two southern states, New South Wales and Victoria. It may also be naturalising in south-east Queensland.

Pruning and care

This palm doesn't drop its old fronds, so they must be removed by hand, which is a big job on a tall palm; the Botanic Gardens of South Australia notes the lower fronds can simply be sawn off flush with the trunk. Because the frond-base spines can pierce leather and carry germs, Gardening Australia recommends having experienced arborists take fronds off before they fall. If you handle fallen fronds yourself, wear eye protection and heavy leather gloves. Water young palms well while they establish.

• Palm tree removal
• Tree pruning
• Stump grinding