Phoenix theophrasti ancient Greek ‘father of botany,’ had described several types of palms, including one from Crete. Apart from the usually inedible dates and upright fruit clusters, the Cretan species can appear quite similar to the cultivated date ("Phoenix dactylifera"). "Phoenix theophrasti" grows up to 15 m tall, usually with several slender stems. The leaves are pinnate, 2–3 m long, with numerous rigid greyish-green linear leaflets 15–50 cm long on each side of the central rachis. Dead leaves are marcescent, remaining attached to the stem for years after withering. The fruit is an oval yellowish-brown drupe 1.5 cm long and 1 cm
Fruit tree propagation of the parent plant) is cut off and stuck into soil. Artificial rooting hormones are sometimes used to improve chances of success. If the cutting does not die from rot-inducing fungi or desiccation first, roots grow from the buried portion of the cutting to become a new complete plant. However, although this works well for some plants (such as figs and olives), for most fruit tree cultivars this method has much too low a success rate to be commercially viable. Root cuttings (pieces of root cut off and induced to grow a new trunk) are also not used to propagate