Date Palm facts for kids

Quick facts for kidsDate Palm
	Phoenix dactylifera
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Arecales
Family:	Arecaceae
Genus:	Phoenix
Species:	P. dactylifera
Binomial name
	Phoenix dactylifera; L.

Date Palm

Date seller in the old souq in Kuwait City

The Date Palm is a tree. It has been cultivated for a very long time because of its edible fruit. This fruit is called date. The tree is between 15m and 25m high. It has long leaves that look like feathers. Such leaves are called pinnate. The leaves can grow to 3–5 metres in length. The leaves have visible spines. There are about 150 leaflets. Each leaflet can be up to 30 cm in length and 2 cm in breadth. The full span of the crown of the tree is 6 to 10 metres.

The tree has one or more trunks, that all come from a single system of roots.

Production

World production of dates was approximately 6.7 Mio tonnes in 2004 (FAO statistics). The major producers are:

Egypt: 1,100,000 t (16.2% of world production)
Iran: 880,000 t (13.0%)
Saudi Arabia: 830,000 t (12.3%)
United Arab Emirates: 760,000 t (11.2%)
India: 710,000 t (10.6%)
Pakistan: 650,000 t (9.6%)
Algeria: 450,000 t (6.6%)
Sudan: 330,000 t
Oman: 240,000 t
Libya: 140,000 t
Others: 1,140,000 t
Iraq used to be a major producer of dates but in recent years production and exports have fallen considerably.

The First International Date Conference was held in Tripoli in 1959. In that conference, it was decided to develop a special program under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to promote the commercial use of substandard or physically defective dates.

Images for kids

Dried date, peach, apricot, and probably almond. From Lahun, Fayum, Egypt. Late Middle Kingdom. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Dates
Young date palm
Date Palm, Kalka, Haryana, India
Dates in the souq in Sayada
Date farm in Medina.
Date output in 2012
Sweet sap tapped from date palm in West Bengal, India
Worldwide date yield
Fresh dates, clockwise from top right: crunchy, crunchy opened, soft out of skin, soft.
Date palm orchard, Boumalne, Morocco
Khadrawi date
Medjool date
Date City in Buraidah
Date Palm stump showing the wood structure
Sukkary
Ammari
Angou
Arichti
Bejjou
Bisr Helou
Gounda
Gousbi
Branch of Hamraya dates
Hissa
Hissa
Kenta
Kentichi
Lagou
Touzerzayet from Tunisia
Trounja
Date palm with fruits at the Abdul Aziz Date Farm in Medina.
Ripe and dry dates fruit bunches at the Khurram Abdullah Bajwa Date Farm in Medina.
Dates growing in Yuma, Arizona
Dates from Algarve, Portugal
Palm Tree Boulevards in Rishon LeZion