Phoenix Palms in the Grand Canyon?

[The Germinator]

Went to the Havasupai Indian reservation in the Grand Canyon National Park. About 100 yards down stream from Mooney falls I found this growing on the banks.

I stopped counting after 7 but there must have been at least a dozen trunks.

[The Germinator]

Here a couple more picture for Kris. What species do think it is. I figure either some renagade palm nut planted these or some one was eating dates and threw away the seeds.

[The Germinator]

These were about 10 miles upstream from the Colorado river in a feeder canyon about 3000 feet higher than the river.

[peachy]

Dypsis canyonata.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Date seeds discarded. Thats my vote. Always wondered if W. filifera would naturalize in Grand Canyon. Obviously, it would.

[MattyB]

That waterfall/pool picture is amazing! Your palm pics are less than stellar. Looks to regular to be P. dactylifera. Looks like P. reclinata to me.

[Dave-Vero]

Weird. I figure the discarded date seed theory has a reasonable chance of being correct. I don't think there'd be a Phoenix reclinata upstream somewhere. Among the odder human visitors were Bill Beer and John Daggett in April 1955. Beer's book is "We SWAM the Grand Canyon: the True Story of a Cheap Vacation that Got a Little Out of Hand." They were both Stanford grads, both surfed, and were sharing a Los Angeles apartment.

[Kris]

Thanks for those nice visuals...