''Brahea armata'', commonly known as Mexican blue palm or blue hesper palm, is a large evergreen tree of the palm family Arecaceae,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, Mexico. It is widely planted as an ornamental.

Description

It grows to a height of , with a stout trunk. Its distinctly bluish leaves are wide, with long petioles. The leaves are persistent in nature, forming a shag around the trunk; in cultivation they are typically burned or cut off. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s extend out beyond the crown, reaching in length. The flowers themselves are small, appearing in February and March, while the fruits are in length, brown and with a generally ovoid to globose shape.

Distribution and habitat

This species is

to the Mexican state of

, distributed from just south of the

international border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

near the

Jacumba Mountains The Jacumba Mountains are a mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges system, located in eastern San Diego County, Southern California, near the U.S. border with Mexico. The mountain range lies in a northwest-southeasterly direction, east of the I ...

to the

Central Desert The deserts of Australia or the Australian deserts cover about , or 18% of the Australian mainland, but about 35% of the Australian continent receives so little rain, it is practically desert. Collectively known as the Great Australian desert, t ...

and Isla Angel de la Guarda. Plants growing in the Sierra de San Francisco in Baja California Sur may be of a different species. It is locally common in arroyos and canyon bottoms, and has been observed growing in rock crevices at higher elevations. It is sometimes found with ''

Washingtonia filifera ''Washingtonia filifera'', the desert fan palm, California fan palm, or California palm,Flora of North America Association. ''Flora of North America: North of Mexico Volume 22: Magnoliophyta: Alismatidae, Arecidae, Commelinidae (in Part), and Zi ...

'' or ''

Washingtonia robusta ''Washingtonia robusta'', known by common name as the Mexican fan palm, Mexican washingtonia, or skyduster is a palm tree native to the Baja California peninsula and a small part of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. Despite its limited native dist ...

''.

Uses

''Brahea armata'' has an attractive appearance, especially when young, and is commonly available at nurseries in the American southwest and in warm temperate locations elsewhere. In the UK it has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

’s Award of Garden Merit. It is drought tolerant (although occasional deep irrigation is recommended), can handle both partial shade and full sun, and temperatures down to . It is found under a variety of names, including "Mexican blue palm", "blue hesper palm", "big blue hesper palm", "blue fan palm", "sweet brahea", and "palma blanca". The Cocopah people ate the seeds after roasting them. File:MatureBraheaArmataAZ.jpg, Mature pair of ''Brahea armata'', Phoenix AZ File:BraheaArmataSettingSeed.jpg, ''Brahea armata'' setting seed File:BraheaArmataClumpPhxAz.jpg, Group planting of ''Brahea armata'', Phoenix, AZ File:JuvenileBraheaArmatapair.jpg, Juvenile pair of ''Brahea armata''

Description

Distribution and habitat

Uses

References

Further reading