The family of the palm trees (Arecaceae), authentic princes of the vegetable kingdom according to Linneus, consists of 2800 different species spreading all over the tropical and subtropical areas of the planet.

The palm tree is one of the trees that have supplied more products for mankind: dates, coconuts, flour, oil, honey or alcohol and wine, as well as the domestic use of palm weavings.

The date palm (Phoenix Dactylífera L.) is one of the earliest plants used by men. Egyptian engravings over 5,500 years old already evidenced the cultivation of dates in that era.

The biological structure of the palm trees has remained so simple that they lack typical elements from other plants such as flowers with petals or a real trunk with branches. The palm tree trunk is nothing but a false trunk formed by an accumulation of old leaves bases leftovers interwoven to form a column shaped structure. Such false trunk can only grow upwards and never sidewards.

The sap inside the palm trees does not circulate around the trunk but through its central part, which implies that they are resistant to fire and able to re-grow from their ashes, which is probably why their generic name is “Phoenix”. The trunk is crowned by a crest of up to 40 leaves over 3m long growing spirally around the top, forming a head or crown.The age of the palm tree can be estimated by the height of its trunk (each metre takes up to 10 years to develop).

Palm trees do not have a main root but small roots resembling hair that grow from the bulb found on the basis of the trunk.

Palm trees can be either male or female. Only females produce dates, while males spread their pollen over the females aided by the wind or through a manual procedure known in Elche as “entaconado”.

The fruits produced by the palms are called dates, a round or oval shaped drupe with very thin skin weighing about 7 grams of which 2 correspond to the seed.
Dates have a very high sugar content (approximately 70%) and also a high nutritional and caloric value (30 calories per date).
An old Moorish proberb said that a good tuareg warrior could survive up to 3 days in the middle of the desert with no more than one date in his pouch. On the first day he would eat its pulp, the second day he would eat its skin, and on the third day he would eat its grounded seed.