PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Plant thefts appear to be on the rise in the Coachella Valley, and Palm Desert officials are even considering installing microchips in some of their plants to help identify them if they are stolen, authorities said Friday.

Jose Duarte, 24, of Thermal, was arrested Thursday afternoon after deputies responded to a report of a man fleeing a ranch near Avenue 60 and Tyler Street with several date palms in his white Ford Taurus, said Sgt. Steve DaSilva of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

One of the deputies stopped the vehicle, which Duarte was driving, and found date palm trees in the car, DaSilva said.

Duarte was arrested on suspicion of grand theft of farm crops and booked into the Indio Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Wednesday afternoon, several thousand dollars worth of allegedly stolen cacti and other plants were found in a truck in the 73000 block of Santa Rosa in Palm Desert, said Lt. Frank Taylor of the Palm Desert Sheriff's Station.

He said authorities were trying to find out where the cacti came from and who stole them.

Taylor noted that in recent months there have been several thefts of expensive plants, especially cacti, in the Palm Desert area.

"A problem regularly experienced is in the identification of these plants, so they can be returned to their rightful owners," Taylor said.

He said the city was working with police to install microchips in its plants to assist in the identification process if they are stolen.