Date palm

Family

Arecaceae

Habit

Tree

Height

20 m

Spread

10 m

Growth

slow

Lifespan

150 years

First yield

after 6 years

Yield per plant

up to 80 kg a year

Yield in cultivation

up to 12 t/ha

Energy yield

3400 kcal per m² a year

Hardiness

zone 9–12

Shade tolerance

full sun

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam

Soil moisture

dry – very wet

pH

6.5 – 8

Synonyms

Dattelpalme

Times apply to the northern hemisphere in a temperate climate and shift with altitude and cultivar.

Edible: The date is one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the world and has been a staple across the drylands of North Africa and western Asia for millennia. Its use depends strongly on ripeness: crisp and astringent at the khalal stage, juicy and soft as rutab, fully ripe and sugar-rich as tamr, in which state it keeps for months without refrigeration. Dried dates contain over 60 per cent sugar and supply potassium, magnesium and dietary fibre. They are eaten raw, worked into paste and syrup, stuffed into pastries and sweets, or fermented into vinegar and spirits. A palm bears up to 100 kilograms a season and starts fruiting after five to six years. Besides the fruit, the sugar-rich trunk sap can be used, though tapping it costs the palm its life.

Other uses: Traditionally every part of the date palm is used. The fronds, up to six metres long, supply material for roofing, mats, baskets, fencing and brooms, while the midribs substitute for timber in crates and scaffolding. Fibre from the leaf bases is twisted into rope, saddles and brushes. The trunk, strictly not wood but a bundle of vascular tissue, serves as roof beams and in irrigation works. Cutting into the growing point releases a sugar-rich sap from which palm wine and palm sugar are made, though this costs the palm its life and is usually done only to trees at the end of their productive span. The fruit yields date syrup, vinegar and spirits, the stones yield oil and, roasted, a coffee substitute; ground, they make high-grade livestock feed. Palm heart is a delicacy but likewise available only when the tree is felled.

Site: In central Europe the date palm is a container and conservatory plant; it will not survive outdoors. It takes light frost to about minus five degrees briefly, but ripening fruit requires months around 30 to 35 degrees, which nobody here can offer: expect dates and you will be disappointed, want a structural plant and you get an imposing one. It needs the sunniest spot on the property. Bear in mind the frond span of several metres and above all their armament: the lowest leaflets are modified into hard, sharp spines sitting at eye level. A container in a passageway, beside seating or where children play is a genuine injury risk; better to stand it free with clearance. Care: Water generously from May to September, as the palm even tolerates short-term waterlogging, and feed weekly with palm fertiliser. Overwinter it bright at 5 to 12 degrees and considerably drier; in a dark cellar it grows drawn and weak. Repot every two to three years into a tall, deep vessel, because the palm roots downwards. Remove only completely dried fronds, and do so wearing gloves; the growing point at the centre must never be damaged, as a topped date palm does not resprout. In winter quarters spider mites and scale insects are the main problem; around the Mediterranean the red palm weevil is a notifiable pest.

Date stones germinate easily and reliably: soaked, laid in warm free-draining substrate and held at around 25 to 30 degrees, they shoot within four to ten weeks. Germination is remote, meaning the seedling first drives a stalk downwards and forms the actual plant only down there, which is why deep pots are needed. For commercial growing, however, seed is useless: the palm is dioecious, sex only shows after years, and about half the seedlings are male; nor do they come true to type. Named varieties are therefore propagated from offshoots that sprout at the base of the trunk and are severed with their own roots at three to five years old. A palm yields only a few such suckers, which is what made modern tissue culture commercially worthwhile. In production, two to three male palms serve every hundred females.

The date palm is wind-pollinated and does not depend on insects; the USDA pollinator report lists it explicitly as wind pollinated and records no pollination requirement. Honeybees take nectar and pollen under certain conditions, rated at the weakest positive level, and no data exist for bumblebees or solitary bees. In practice humans took over pollination long ago: shaking male inflorescences over female palms has been a craft for millennia and appears on Assyrian reliefs. In its growing regions the palm is valuable chiefly as structure, with palm doves, sparrows and ring-necked parakeets nesting in its crown, and the dead leaf bases along the trunk offering cavities for bats and insects. In central Europe, standing in a container and not flowering, it has no value for native fauna.

braucht zwischen (26 - 45°C), toleriert (10 - 52°C) am Tag. Frost beschädigt Blätter+Wachstum ab -4°C, Frosthärte bis -15°C, Jahresniederschlag sollte zwischen 100-400mm liegen; wurzelt bis 6m tief; Ertragsabnahme nach 50-75 Jahren, dann wird Palmsaft abgezapft. 5%Männliche in Plantagen; 150 Palmen/ha; sehr salztolerant

Western Asia and North Africa: Arabian Peninsula, Gulf states, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan. The date palm can no longer be pinned down reliably as a wild plant; its origin is thought to lie around the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, where it has been cultivated for at least six thousand years, making itself dependent on humans earlier than almost any other fruit crop. Trade and conquest carried it to North Africa, Spain, the Horn of Africa, India and the New World. Today it is grown throughout the arid subtropics. The largest producers are Saudi Arabia with around 1.9 million tonnes, Egypt with 1.75 and Algeria with 1.34 million tonnes in 2024; in Europe the palm grove of Elche in Spain is the best-known stand.

The date palm is the signature plant of the oasis. It grows where groundwater rises close enough to the surface, or irrigation stands in for it, surrounded by a climate too hot and too dry for most crops. The Arabic saying describes its requirements exactly: feet in the water, head in the fire. Its water demand is high but its soil requirements are low, and it tolerates saline groundwater and salty soils better than almost any other tree, which makes it indispensable in drylands with salinising ground. In the oasis it forms the top storey of a three-tier system: pomegranate, fig and citrus grow in its half-shade, with grain and vegetables below them. Ripening the fruit takes months at around 30 to 35 degrees with dry air.