It seems that the flashiest and most luxurious landscapes in South Florida include at least one Date Palm. There are several varieties and hybrids such as the Roebelenii (Pigmy Date Palm), the clumping Senegal (Reclinata), and the most massive and stately Canary Island date Palm which is the one that looks like a pineapple and often has ferns growing in the “nut” just below the base of the fronds. However, the True Date Palm which produces the prized edible fruit is the Phoenix dactylifera and is also known by its most popular cultivar name, ‘Medjool.’ So with all of the gorgeous and expensive Date Palms planted all over the place, why don’t we have any dates around here? Dates are amazing; you can throw them in the blender with fruits and veggies to sweeten smoothies or just eat them plain or with peanut butter! They are rich in dietary fiber and also contain antioxidants such as tannins, beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin which are thought to protect against various cancers, are anti-inflammatory and help prevent macular degeneration. If you could find a date around here, you would also find vitamin K, B-complex vitamins, potassium, iron, as well as minerals like calcium, manganese, copper, and magnesium! These palms can be found at high-end resorts, in front of ocean-front condominiums, gracing expensive hotels, framing gated communities, inside malls, and in medians along the beach but no one will ever find a date there in South Florida. If you found these same dactylifera date palms in the Middle East or even in California or Arizona, you’d have yourself plenty of dates. Well, it turns out, these palms don’t produce dates here because they aren’t happy in our climate. They aren’t even grown here; most are shipped in from California and Arizona and are often older trees which have declined in production so they are dug, sold and shipped by a date producing operation to Florida to make room for younger more productive palms. The main reasons that these palms don’t like our Florida climate and growing conditions relate to rainfall and soil. South Florida receives approximately 65″ of rain each year, mainly in the hot summer months as opposed to their preference of 20-40″ of rain when it is hot with low humidity. The water table in South Florida is at 2-6′ so their roots will easily be in water much of the time which is very stressful for desert loving palm trees. There are things we can do to help them stay alive such as planting in sand, in elevated beds and away from water-loving plants but they sometimes remain in a state of slow decline often battling stress induced problems such as Ganoderma butt-rot, Phytopthora bud-rot, Fusarium Wilt, Lethal Yellowing, False Smut, Palm Weevils and nutritional deficiencies. So if you’re looking for dates in South Florida, and there are plenty of reasons to be looking, then you’re going to have to go to find them in a grocery store, which I’ve heard is a pretty popular pick-up location anyway!

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