Arizona State University Date Palm Collection

Phoenix dactylifera

Arizona State University manages the largest date palm collection of any public garden in the country. Throughout the 20^th century it was common for the graduating class to plant a date palm on the Tempe campus each year. Our finest Medjool date palms are located at the Oasis Cafe on Tyler Mall in front of the Physical Science A wing. Giant, old Kadrawy, Braim, Hayany, and Zahidi date palms are scattered across the campus.

The main date grove of 137 date palms is located on the Polytechnic campus on Upton Ave. This grove is managed for the valuable offshoots at the base of each palm. ASU was active in the 1990s acquiring rare date cultivars from date palm groves that were shutting down around the valley, and is now actively trading offshoots with the Thermal, California USDA Date Palm Germplasm, the Yuma Mesa Date Palm Germplasm in Yuma, AZ and The Phoenix Zoo’s date palm collection.

Cultivar list for Polytechnic Germplasm

Recommended Tools of the Trade

• 1. Hoe

  2. Pole saw

  3. Recurved carpet knife

  4. Gloves, long sleeve shirt, long pants

  5. Closed toed shoes

  6. Wrap around sunglasses to protect your eyes

  7. Wide brim hat

  8. Plenty of water

  9. Buy the book:

     1. Imported and American Varieties of Dates in the United States

  10. Author: DONALD R. HODEL from www.ucanr.org/dates

Security

We are working with campus security to help protect our palm grove from vandals. All volunteers will be issued photo date palm badges.

There are four major date palm tasks:

POLLINATING the dates: Late February-April

THINNING the dates: May

BAGGING the dates: June/July

HARVESTING the dates: Sept/October