Above: Whoa! There sure are a lot of different kinds of palm trees. Let’s go over some of the basic types…

Above: A familiar sight to any Californian, the Mexican fan or Washingtonia robusta is San Diego County’s most common species of palm.

Above: See how the leaves radiate from the center of each branch, like a fan?

Above: The Chinese windmill palm (at left), and Bismarck palm (at center) are examples of some rarer types of fan palms.

Above: Compare to the leaves of this Pygmy date palm or Phoenix robelini, called a “feather” palm due to the way the leaves grow from a central vein.

Above: You can differentiate queens from other common feather palm varieties by their “floppy” leaves, clearly observed on these Balboa Park specimens.

Above: The king palm, another popular type of feather palm, does not grow quite as tall as the queen and can be differentiated by its straight, rigid leaves.

Above: Compare this king to the date palm in the background. Both have rigid, feather-shaped fronds, but notice how the trunk of the date palm is much thicker.

Above: The Canary Island date palm is a contender for world’s largest palm by volume, and this famous specimen at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas might very well be the biggest.