Botanical Name / Phoenix dactylifera L.

Solitary or clustered, slender palm with stems reaching up to 40 m in height and 30–40 cm in diameter. The base of the stem in younger trees is typically surrounded by sucker shoots. Leaves are approximately 7 m long, arching, and strongly ascending. The leaflets are greyish green, coriaceous, evenly spaced and arranged in several ranks, measuring 20–65 cm long and 15–20 mm wide. The petiole is long and slender, armed with sharp spines along the margin The inflorescences are interfoliar and measure about 1.2 m in length. Staminate flowers are 5–10 mm long with united sepals and leathery, pointed petals. Pistillate flowers are globose and yellow, featuring sepals connate in a 3-lobed cupule and imbricate, strongly nerved petals twice as long as the calyx. The fruit is an oblong to ovoid berry, 5–7 x 2–3 cm, which is green when young and becomes deep or yellowish brown when ripe. It contains a single seed surrounded by a sweet edible mesocarp.

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