Odd looking Phoenix in Phoenix

[DesertCoconut]

The date palm on the right looks strange to me. Here in Phoenix, AZ we have tons of date palms of all species and hybrids. Every time I pass this one it stands out to me for some reason. Sorry for the Google maps capture. It's in a freeway median and I can never get a picture of it. See how the leaflets hang downward?  They flutter in the breeze and look soft like a coconut. A regular dactylifera or sylvestris has stiff spiky leaflets that move with the whole leaf when the wind blows. Any ideas what it could be? I've been watching this tree for as long as I have lived in the area and it has puzzled me since I saw it the first time.  Also I've noticed the leafs never hang much below horizontal like the others around it. Then the landscapers come along and over-prune of course. 

[Palmcycasnut]

It looks like a large dactylifera x roebelenii hybrid? 

[Gonzer]

1 hour ago, Palmcycasnut said:

It looks like a large dactylifera x roebelenii hybrid? 

This.

[Eric in Orlando]

They cross so easily. In Florida they often are hybrids crossed with hybrids so you get a whole range of appearances. 

[DesertCoconut]

Thanks, guys. If palms could talk, this one would have an interesting story to tell for sure. I was under the impression that p. roebelenii was a relatively new palm for Arizona (30 - 40ish years?). So, I don't think it could have been hybridized naturally locally. This one must have been trucked in and planted when that freeway intersection was built in the late 80s. It's too big/old to have sprouted in that spot.

I have seen some very nice phoenix hybrids around town, but never another like this one. At my old house I planted one (actually a clump of 5) that was most likely reobelenii x rupicola, but the nursery had no idea. It retained the small size, but grew twice as fast as other pygmies I had. The newest leaves had a strange nearly 180 degree twist that flattened out as new leaves pushed them down. I have been tempted over the years to stop and ask if I could take a look at it, but I don't want to be that weird guy that knocks on the on the door and says, "I used to live here. Can I see your backyard?"

[GeneAZ]

About the time they landscaped the Loop and added gravel and designs, they were also scalping the Indian School property of all its many ancient palms.  Many of these very old palms ended up being used along the 51 and other freeways around town.  I believe your plant is one of those from the Indian School property, which would put it starting life here around the 1920s.

I, too, can't remember roebeliniis being introduced to the Valley before 28 years ago.  I've been here since 1962.

 

[DesertCoconut]

Fascinating history lesson. Thanks, Gene! I didn't know about the Indian School property. I knew of some of the other decommissioned date farms around town. Some of them just developed into residential and left the trees like the one in Arcadia and Palmcroft villages. So it's still a mystery then with a 90 year old tree that pre-"dates" the introduction of the roebellenii into local cultivation. Maybe it's just a beautiful mutation. Too bad it's just standing in the middle of a freeway intersection. It would look so much better in my backyard.