Species
+

Washingtonia filifera (Rafarin) H.Wendl. ex de Bary

American cotton palm, California Fan Palm, California washingtonia, Desert Palm

Climate known 85 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Washingtonia filifera, commonly known as the California fan palm, cotton palm or desert fan palm, is a flowering plant in the family Arecaceae, native to the far southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It typically grows 30–50 feet (9–15 m) tall and 1–2 feet (0.3–0.6 m) wide, with a sturdy, columnar trunk and waxy, fan-shaped (palmate) leaves. As a monocot, it is evergreen and exhibits a tree-like growth habit.

Text from Wikipedia, “Washingtonia filifera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Washingtonia

Washingtonia is a monotypic genus of monoecious palms, native to the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. Commonly known as the desert fan palm, the genus was named in honor of George Washington, the first U.S. President, by the German botanist Hermann Wendland in 1879. The genus is among the most recognizable and widely cultivated palms worldwide.

Text from Wikipedia, “Washingtonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Rafarin) H.Wendl. ex de Bary
Native to
Arizona, California, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
871 in range· 315 open

At a glance

Warmest month
39°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
147mm/yr
1 wet month · peak Feb 25 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–55DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March and August in the northern hemisphere (November to March and August at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 147 mm a year, wettest February at 25 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 55 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 0.1 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Brahea dulcis J.G.Cooper; Brahea filamentosa H.Wendl.; Brahea filifera (Rafarin) W.Watson; Livistona filamentosa (H.Wendl. ex Franceschi) R.Pfister; Neowashingtonia filamentosa (H.Wendl. ex Franceschi) Sudw. and 11 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March and August in the northern hemisphere (November to March and August at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (112 mm of 147 mm) falls in November to March and August, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.9 °C against a yearly mean of 21.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February and May to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 147 mm a year, wettest February at 25 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

147 mm a year at the habitat, 112 mm of it November to March and August. Wettest month February at 25 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 82 mm to 396 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 55 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 55 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 0.1 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.1 °C, the absolute minimum -5.8 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.3 °C in December (across the envelope cells 3.3 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 39.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 0.1 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 39 to 48% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Dec to 39 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Dec to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 147 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 220 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 44.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost44.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 20–55RH 39–48 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 220 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 14–2120 / 16–2323 / 19–2727 / 22–3132 / 27–3637 / 31–4039 / 34–4238 / 33–4135 / 30–3929 / 25–3222 / 19–2518 / 14–20
Night °C7 / 3–108 / 4–119 / 6–1313 / 9–1617 / 12–2022 / 15–2525 / 19–2925 / 19–2922 / 17–2516 / 12–1910 / 7–136 / 3–9
Rain mm24 / 12–6725 / 11–7619 / 9–566 / 2–233 / 1–71 / 0–37 / 3–2412 / 7–319 / 5–199 / 5–2311 / 6–3121 / 12–52
DLI22 / 20–2428 / 26–3038 / 36–4047 / 45–4852 / 51–5355 / 53–5551 / 49–5246 / 44–4740 / 39–4232 / 30–3424 / 22–2620 / 18–22
RH %48 / 44–5148 / 44–5245 / 42–5242 / 38–5041 / 36–5039 / 34–4742 / 38–4744 / 40–4943 / 39–4943 / 40–4945 / 42–4848 / 44–51

Each figure is the median across the 220 grid cells holding the 712 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1132:1271 (33.375, -116.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 220 distinct grid cells holding the 712 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1132:1271 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_-116.250, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 534 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, California, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Spain, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Algeria, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Réunion, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Palestine, New South Wales, New Zealand North, Hawaii, Nevada, Florida, Louisiana, Mexico Northeast, El Salvador, Bolivia
Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.627, -116.291 · in the densest population, 694 records (80% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 871 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 315 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 133 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 159 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 871 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Washingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filiferaWashingtonia filifera

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Alan Rockefeller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Washingtonia filifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Comparative study of flexural properties prediction of Washingtonia filifera rachis biochar bio-mortar by ANN and RSM models
Messaouda Boumaaza, Ahmed Belaadi, Mostefa Bourchak, Mohammad Jawaid (2021) · Construction and Building Materials
Thermomechanical and structural analysis of green hybrid composites based on polylactic acid/biochar/treated W. filifera palm fibers
Abdelaziz Lekrine, Ahmed Belaadi, Isma Dembri, Mohammad Jawaid (2024) · Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Heavy metal pollution and physiological changes in the leaves of some shrub, palm and tree species in urban areas of Adana, Turkey
Zeynep Banu Doğanlar, Oğuzhan Doğanlar, Selım Erdoğan, Yunus Önal (2012) · Chemical Speciation and Bioavailability
Structural, thermal, mechanical and physical properties of Washingtonia filifera fibres reinforced thermoplastic biocomposites
Abdelaziz Lekrine, Ahmed Belaadi, Azzedine Makhlouf, Salah Amroune (2022) · Materials Today Communications
Three New Alien Taxa for Europe and a Chorological Update on the Alien Vascular Flora of Calabria (Southern Italy)
Valentina Lucia Astrid Laface, Carmelo María Musarella, Ana Cano-Ortíz, Ricardo Quinto Canas (2020) · Plants
Bio-ecology and integrated management of the red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), in the region of Valencia (Spain)
Óscar Dembilio, Josep Anton Jaques Miret (2012) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.