They have long, thread-like, white fibers, and the petioles are pure green with yellow edges and filifera-filaments, between the segments.

In Mexico, it is native only to the state of Baja California, where it occurs in isolated canyons and oases as far south as Bahía de los Angeles.

It is also reportedly naturalized in the South and Southeast Texas, Florida, Hawaii, extreme southwest Utah, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Australia as well as in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Spain and Italy.

[15][16] Desert fan palms provide habitat for the giant palm-boring beetle, western yellow bat, hooded oriole, and many other bird species.

[17] Historically, natural oases are mainly restricted to areas downstream from the source of hot springs, though water is not always visible at the surface.

After those layers are ignited and burnt off, the remaining surface is left heavily charred, which fortifies the trunk against future flames.

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.

W. filifera appears to be resistant to the red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) by a mechanism of antibiosis – production of compounds lethal to the larvae.

[20][21][22] Currently, the desert fan palm is experiencing a population and range expansion, perhaps due to global warming[23][24] or mustang control.

[29] Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert preserves and protects healthy riparian palm habitat examples in the Little San Bernardino Mountains, and westward where water rises through the San Andreas Fault on the east valley side.

The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park both have large and diverse W. filifera canyon oasis habitats.