I toured the Imperial Valley of California and rode through almost 50 miles of continuous regal date groves. I delighted in experiencing the myriads of Medjool date palm trees always aligned in a neat precision of rows, like formal living sculptural sentinels.

The true edible date palm, Phoenix dactylifera, takes my mind right to a desert oasis! I see the pyramids among the date palms. I see dark-skinned, white-turbaned nomads and sturdy dromedary camels, their muscular torsos hung heavy with leather pouches brimming with burnished-brown bunches of just-cut, sugary-sweet Medjool dates! The Medjool date is the "refugee" palm from The Old World! It was the preferred date "candy" of Moroccan Royalty and was transplanted here, in the U.S.' lower Colorado River Valley to escape a fatal virus. The disease plagued that part of the Mediterranean Basin and threatened to make the Medjool Date only a "sweet" memory in Morocco! The Phoenix dactylifera thrived here to the world's delight! It still IS the treat of Middle Eastern Royalty but now all can enjoy the Medjool's succulent, almost sinful sugary decadence!

The date palm takes my mind, also, to Beverly Hills, Scottsdale, and Palm Springs! It seems synonymous with "new" desert oases, and decadent wealth! A palm needing precious water where rain is sparse. Indeed, the the date palm drinks copious amounts of water which it typically obtains from rivers and springs! It is cultivated from Zone 8 to 11 but the date palm only reliably develops fruit where its roots have an unending supply of fresh water and the air's relative humidity is literally desert-dry! The date palm is hardy to -10ºC (21ºF).

Happily growing in the lower Colorado River Valley desert heat, the Medjools' fruit plumps to burst with sugary deliciousness!

This palm has very distinctive and beautiful foliage that is blue green and held upright and erect. Planted in rows, the edible date palm's very formal form creates an elegant scene. There's nothing frowsy about a landscape that includes Medjool date specimens! However I think they are really best looking when grown out in the dry Western United States. In Florida's Gulf Coast and in Queensland, Australia, the Medjool date palms tend to look a bit stressed by the high humidity. They seem to be doing OK in these humid environs but I don't think that they are really very happy!

The Medjool date palm really wants to be where it feels like it's back home! Maybe they have a genetic longing for the camels and Bedouins and sands of the Moroccan Desert. The Arizona and California deserts are the environments the most like Morocco as far as this date tree is concerned and it there have been commercial date groves operating in those states for decades. This palm, as you can probably tell by my prose, has "moved" me and I feel privileged to have planted and cared for some beautiful specimens that I have come to know intimately! The Medjool date palm is a beautiful and historically important species with fruit that is truly ambrosial!

Read Floridata's Profile of Phoenix dactylifera to learn more about the date palm.

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