A nearly century-old dead date palm tree helped solve an ancestry mystery

The iconic Cape Verde date palm comes from cultivated trees gone feral

A group of date plam trees is silhouetted against a blue sky.

New data for a long-running debate on the origins of Cape Verde’s treasured date palms raise questions about tweaking their scientific name.

William J. Baker/Plants, People, Planet 2025

What the island nation of Cape Verde cherishes as its own distinctive kind of date palm is getting an ancestry reveal.