California Fan Palm
Washingtonia filifera
California's only native palm, a stout-trunked fan palm that grows very tall and, planted in a grove, casts deep, cool shade, with fruit that songbirds eat. It takes alkaline soil, sand and seasonal flooding. Its dead leaves hang in a shaggy thatch on the trunk unless trimmed, so remove it now and then.
- Mature size
- 50 × 15 ft
- 15 × 4.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 8a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- May–Jun
California Fan Palm at its mature size
A mature California Fan Palm grows to about 50 ft tall and 15 ft wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, laspilitas.com.
Photos
Growing California Fan Palm
- Grows well in
- The desert Southwest and California.
- Good for
- Privacy screen and pollinators
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Colorado Desert oases (California, Arizona) and Baja California
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For California Fan Palm, that’s about 15 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See California Fan Palm in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other palms
Windmill Palm
Pindo Palm
Cabbage PalmettoAll drawn to the same scale.