How palm trees die of old age

If you've seen palm trees without any leaves on the top in an area where otherwise plants are doing fine, chances are you're just seeing them die of old age. I see a few of them here in Phoenix, and this past summer I saw a lot of them in Los Angeles.

It does seem strange, but yes palm trees die of old age. In fact all trees die eventually, even the ancient ones in California will die some day, and all trees are different. The typical palm trees that you see in Phoenix and in Los Angeles can live up to 100 years, which sounds like forever, but it's really not. So the ones that were planted, for example, in Beverly Hills in the 1920s are approaching the end of their lives.

The neighborhood where I took the photo at the top of this post is only about thirty years old, so the palms trees probably aren't dying of old age, they really can't be that old. But that's what dead palm trees look like - just big trucks with no leaves on top. When the leaves stop growing at the top, the plant is dead.

Here in the Phoenix area what I'm seeing is the tall, skinny palm trees (fan palms) being replaced with date palms. Date palms have a wider canopy, and are the ones that you see in an oasis. They're more expensive, and that's the reason that they weren't planted as much as the fan palms, but in my opinion, they look a whole lot nicer. You can see a nice date palm there between the two dead fan palms.

I also saw some of that in Los Angeles. Date palms don't get tall and skinny, so they'll never look like the "Rodeo Drive palms" that have become famous, but they're more water-efficient, and to me they look better.

By the way, when you have your dead palm trees cut down, be sure to have the stump ground down, too. If you leave the stump it will stay there for decades, just looking sad.