on the trees for food and places to build nests. Numerous insect species visit the hanging inflorescences that appear in late spring. Historically, natural oases are mainly restricted to areas downstream from the source of hot springs, though water is not always visible at the surface. Today's oasis environment may have been protected from colder climatic changes over the course of its evolution. Thus, this palm is restricted by both water and climate to widely separated relict groves. The trees in these groves show little if any genetic differentiation, (through electrophoretic examination), suggesting that the genus is genetically very stable. Fire adaptations Fan palm oases have historically been subject to both natural and manmade fires. Fires are rarely fatal for the fan palm, but it is also not completely immune to them. The fan palm's trunk is heavily resistant to burning. In most cases, the trunk is only at risk of losing some of its outer vascular layers during a fire. After those layers are ignited and burnt off, the remaining surface is left heavily charred, which fortifies the trunk against future flames. Subsequent burnings serve to char the trunk more, further increasing its fire resistance. The palm's fronds are the most flammable portion of the tree. The unchecked buildup of dead fronds as a 'skirt' around the trunk can be especially dangerous in a crown fire. A severe accumulation of them could constitute enough kindling to completely burn through the trunk, killing the tree. However, if a palm can survive the burning of its fronds, they will take time to regrow, leaving it less susceptible to fire in the meantime. Barring extreme, fatal conditions, fires are even conducive to the health and propagation of fan palms. The palms' reproduction process benefits from burnings, as fires help release saplings and clear away overgrowth from surrounding vegetation. Fires can also help palms conserve water by burning away their crowns and parts of their trunks, leading to a reduction in surface area and therefore decreased rates of evaporation and transpiration. Threats Grazing animals can kill young plants through trampling, or by eating the terminus at the apical meristem, the growing portion of the plant. This may have kept palms restricted to a lesser range than indicated by the availability of water. The palm boring beetle Dinapate wrightii (Bostrichidae) can chew through the trunks of this and other palms. Eventually, a continued infestation