"Omigod! An alien birthing!", was what I thought upon seeing this when I stepped outside into the front garden one day. Beautiful, isn't it? I'm still geting used to the yearly cycle of activity of some of the larger trees out there, so this was a pleasant surprise. Having convinced myself that it was not going to grab me in its many-fingered purple paw and do something horrible to me, I studied it for a long while, and took a few photographs. Within a day or two, it revealed its full, elegant shape. Since then, I've had several appear. I love the colours. I don't know the name of this palm, unfortunately. Do you? It is very common around Southern California.
There are so many varieties here (all but one brought here in the last century or so, apparently), and gardeners love them: I've [strike]three[/strike] two (correction because the other ...