Q. I see palm trees with the fronds
falling off all around our Sun City McDonald Ranch as on our daily walks. Was
wondering if this is part of the palm’s life cycle or is it a disease problem?
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| Palm fronds falling were thought to be from the Mexican fan palm. Not really. |
A. Some palms have fronds that drop
from the tree and other palms that don’t. The usual dropping of fronds may or
may not be typical to some palm trees like the Mexican fan palm. It depends.
.jpg) |
| Mexican fan palms flowering. |
It’s
a genetic issue. Seed production in palms is from the wind, not from bees or
flies. There can be a lot of genetic variability when starting plants from
seed. In other words, there is a lot of variation in palms because they are
started from seed. There is such a thing as “seeded varieties” (some
lawn grasses) but for the most part not in palms.
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| Mostly California fan palms near a lagoon in 29 Palms. |
The
palms you have a picture of are generally Mexican fan palms. Mexican fan palms
are typically started from seed. Mexican fan palms are famous (mistakenly) for
“self-skinning”. There is a lot of variability in that feature of
Mexican fan palms. What you are seeing is genetic variability in these palms
because of the seeds.
Palm
fronds separate from the trunk because of rotting (rotting diseases) but this
does not happen as often with California fan palms. These typically have a
fatter trunk that holds on to the palm fronds and may form a “skirt”
of old dead fronds that cling to the trunk. So, we call fan palms with a fatter
trunk “California fan palm” and those with a skinny trunk Mexican fan
palm.