While visiting friends in Palm Desert we went to the Palm Canyon National Refuge which is part of the Indian Reservation, and it has a huge stand of Palm Trees that are native to CA, as most all others have been brought in.  Over 25 years ago a fire was started by kids playing with matches and it burned through and across, three or four canyons and went through this canyon.  But because the palms are 80% water they survived, and still provide lots of shade, and are over 200 years old.  We went for a nice 2 mile hike through them and were amazed at how they were able to survive.