ENDOGENOUS SERIES. I93 



Washington Palm. j Washing tonia filifera WendL 

 X anleat Palm. \Neowashingtoniafilamentosa Wendl. 



Nomenclature. (Sudworth. ) 



Fanleaf Palm Washington California Fan Palm, Arizona 



Palm, Desert Palm (Cal.). Palm, Wild Date (Cal .) 



Locality. 

 California. 



Features of Tree. 



Thirty to sixty feet in height, one and one-half to three feet in 

 diameter. Fan-shaped leaves rising yet farther in tuft from 

 summit ; edible fruit. 



Color, Appearance, or Grain of Wood. 



Light greenish yellow to dark red, conspicuous grain. 

 Structural Qualities of Wood. 



Soft, light, shrinks in seasoning, difficult to work. 



Representative Uses of Wood. 

 Ornamental purposes. 



Weight of Seasoned Wood in Pounds per Cubic Foot. 



3 2 - 

 Modulus of Elasticity. 



Modulus of Rupture. 



Remarks. 



The largest of the United States Palms. Much used for land- 

 scape effects in California. 



These trees, native in the deserts, are probably the most popular of 

 the palms transplanted in the cultivated districts of Southern California. 

 "Desert" refers to the original ranges of the trees. "Fanleaf" refers to 

 the large fan-like leaves, while "filifera" and "filimentosa" allude to the 

 filaments hanging from the leaves. 



The trunks are of no more importance than those of other local palms, 

 but the leaf-stalks exhibit strength and characteristics as follows: Fresh 

 stalks are light, tough, stringy and flexible. They are of a gray green 

 color and resemble bamboo in that they harden and turn yellow as they 

 dry. They differ from bamboo in the form of their cross sections and in 

 that rods 10 feet or more in length have no joints. Many thousand of 

 these leaf stalks are annually pruned from growing trees in Southern 

 California and are at present burned as waste. 



Two roughly cured stalks were tested, the central portions of each spe- 

 cimen broke, leaving edges which stripped without sign of fracture. One 

 piece resisted tension up to 11,370 pounds per square inch, while the other 

 broke at 10,150 pounds per square inch. These figures, that must be con 

 sidered with the light weight of the wood, were averaged for entire s( 

 tions including those parts that stripped without breaking. Strength 

 would doubtless be increased by selection and seasoning. 



The "wild date" must not be confused with the true date Falm 

 (Phoenix dactylifera) as naturalized in Florida, Arizona, and California. U 

 I94-) 



