Washingtonia robusta Mexican fan palm

Mexican fan palms line the east entrance of the Science and Engineering Quad, guiding the eye to the West Gate of Main Quad with its own set of palms in the distance. Sairus Patel, 11 Dec 2022

Tall slender trunks and glossy dark green crowns distinguish the Mexican fan palm from its California cousin, W. filifera. The latter is stouter and shorter, with fronds a muted jade. After you meet a few of both, which you can do in the Inner Quad, you’ll be able to quickly tell the difference. The Mexican falm palms in the Inner Quad were introduced in the late 1970s or ’80s. A venerable trio behind Building 460 can be seen from afar; their crowns form a heart shape when viewed from the entrance of Memorial Church. A dramatic grid of 36 trees – six rows by six – fills the inner courtyard beside the east wing of Schwab Residential Center.

Acclaimed landscape architect Thomas Church designed an allée of 10 at the west gateway to the Inner Quad, planted around 1968 when he redesigned Lomita Mall as a pedestrian corridor. About 20 feet tall when planted, their trunks echoed the visual rhythm of the arcade columns, and, at eye height even matched their girth. This set into place one of the most iconic arboreal patterns of central campus. Mexican fan palms later lined the quad’s east gateway in similar fashion. In 2002, the east entrance to the Science and Engineering Quad (SEQ) was planted with 22 trees approaching 40 feet in height. Eleven years later, as the rest of that quad was being completed, 24 more were installed at the west entrance. Stand there, at the far end, and look down the East-West Axis toward Main Quad: soaring Mexican fan palms frame four segments of the uninterrupted view that ends at Green Library.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Leland Stanford had planned for multiple quads to be built along this axis in the future, on either side of Main Quad, rather like railroad cars added onto a train. The side quads were to leave the vista along this axis entirely open, as SEQ has done. However, Green Library was planned as the central feature of an east quad and does indeed terminate that view. And as the University Architect has astutely noted, Green Library will never be moved. When a future quad is built to the west of SEQ, as it undoubtedly will, you can be sure which tree will frame its gates.

Name derivation: Washingtonia – after George Washington (1732–1799), first President of the United States; robusta – Latin, stout.