It's native to the far southwestern United States and Baja California. Washingtonia filifera grows naturally in desert and arid regions, along streams and canyons, and in open areas where groundwater is present in southern California, western Arizona, and Baja California in Mexico. It forms open to dense groves in moist areas, often providing 100% of overstory cover. They provide habitat for the giant palm-boring beetle, western yellow bat, hooded oriole, and many other bird species. Hooded orioles rely on the trees for food and places to build nests. The tree grows in full sun soil tolerances: clay; loam; sand; acidic; alkaline; well-drained drought tolerance. The shelter that the skirt creates provides a microhabitat for many small birds and invertebrates. If any red color is present on petioles or trunk, it is not a pure W. filifera, but a W. fila-busta hybrid. In Kampala, this palm can be found within Kitante courts, Makerere university, along Baskerville avenue, Impala avenue among other places.

It is an evergreen monocot with a tree like growth habit. This tree has a thick, robust, columnar trunk, waxy, fan-shaped (palmate) leaves and achieves a height of 15 20 m (49 66 ft) tall by 3 6 m (10 20 ft) broad. Stem robust more or less uniform in diameter, up to 24 m tall, 60-120 cm in diameter, upper part covered with dead leaves.

BARK: massive gray trunk is barrel shaped and ringed with old leaf scars, and may reach over 3 ft. (0.9 m) in diameter at its widest point, upright and will not droop; not particularly showy; no thorns. Unburnedtrunks are covered by a mass of pendent dead leaves (shag or skirt).

LEAVES:ever green broadleaves, gray-green palmate (fan-shaped) leaves each 3-6 ft. (0.9-1.8 m) across, alternate, costapalmate, entire leaf margin, star-shaped leaves, leaf blade length: >36 inches, leaves circular in outline, divided from the middle into 70-75 segments, segments glabrous, pendulous and swing freely in the wind, filamentous on the margin and at the apex, a long thread hanging at the sinus of each segment; costa prominent, hastula at the apex of petiole triangular, whitish, spongy. Petiole long, plano-convex, margin of the lower portion spinous, spines yellow, hooked, hard. When the fronds die, they remain attached and drop down to cloak the trunk in a wide skirt.

FLOWERS: Inflorescence among the foliage, longer than the leaves, declined, bracts tubular at base, sheathing the branches and branchlets, flattened at anthesis. Flowers white, subsessile; calyx 3-lobed, campanulate, c. 3 mm long; corolla 3-lobed, 6-7 mm long, papery, lanceolate, acuminate; anthers large, dorsifixed, versatile, hastate, filaments fusiform. Ovary tri-lobed, stigmas three, style filiform, exserted.

FRUIT: black fruit, oval; round shape with lengthof < .5 inch. It’s a drupe containing a singlelarge seedapproximately 1/4 in (0.6 cm) in diameter.

Leaves can be used to make sandals, thatch roofs, and baskets.

Stems can be used to make cooking utensils.

Its valued as a landscaping ornamental palm.

The wood was used for kindling or making small sticks or twigs used for lighting fires.

The seeds have been used as the rattle in gourd rattles.

Spoons and hunting bows can be made from the petioles