Sabal palmetto (, SAY-bəl), also known as cabbage palm, cabbage palmetto, sabal palm, blue palmetto, Carolina palmetto, common palmetto, Garfield's tree, and swamp cabbage, is one of 15 species of palmetto palm. It is native to the Southern United States, the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and the West Indies.
Description
Sabal palmetto grows up to tall. Starting at half to two-thirds the height, the tree develops into a rounded, costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets. A costapalmate leaf has a definite costa (midrib) unlike the typical palmate or fan leaf, but the leaflets are arranged radially like in a palmate leaf. All costapalmate leaves are about across, produced in large compound panicles up to in radius, extending out beyond the leaves. The fruit is a black drupe about long containing a single seed. It is extremely salt-tolerant and is often seen growing near both the Atlantic Ocean coast and the Gulf of Mexico coast.
Sabal palmetto "Lisa"
In 1998, a new mutant form of S. palmetto was discovered in southwest Florida, and named as a cultivar, Sabal palmetto "Lisa". This cultivar has unusually thick and leathery, largely fused leaflets that give the palm a unique and appealing appearance. Over 60% of the seedlings have the same leaf characteristics as the parent plant and Sabal palmetto "Lisa" has been popularized in the nursery trade in Florida over the last 20 years and proven to be as resistant to heat, wind, cold, drought, and neglect as the common form while keeping its shape.
Distribution and habitat
Sabal palmetto is native to the subtropical coastal regions of the American states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, southeastern North Carolina, and extreme southern Texas. It is also cultivated elsewhere in the Southeastern US, in some areas of southeastern Virginia, southwestern Alabama, and southeastern Mississippi. It can also be found alongside Cuba's northern coast (from Havana to Matanzas), the Turks and Caicos, the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and the Bahamas.
The species is hardy to the US Department of Agriculture's zone 8a, and has been reported to have some cold hardness down to , but needs hot and humid summers to grow well. Maintenance of the cabbage palm tree is very easy and very adaptable. The cabbage palmetto is known to tolerate drought, standing water and brackish water. Even though this palm is drought-tolerant, it thrives on regular light watering and regular feeding. It is highly tolerant of salt winds, but not saltwater flooding.
Cultivation
Sabal palmetto is a popular landscape plant in subtropical climates and used for its tolerance of salt spray and drought, and is moderately cold hardy. Because of their relatively long establishment period and prevalence on southern ranchlands, few, if any are grown from seed in nurseries. Instead, established plants are dug in the wild with small rootballs since virtually all the severed roots die and must be replaced by new roots in the new location. Most leaves are removed at this time to reduce transpiration. Most references rate the species as hardy to USDA hardiness zone 8a. Cabbage palms have excellent hurricane resistance, but are frequently overpruned. Sabal palms normally only do well in hot and humid summer climates.
The cabbage palm is remarkably resistant to fire, floods, coastal conditions, cold, high winds, and drought. Despite this, recent mortality has been caused by Texas phoenix palm decline, a phytoplasma currently found on the west coast of Florida.
Sabal palmetto trunks appear in two different conditions, which can be confusing (see photo). When leaves die, the leaf bases typically persist for a while, creating a spiky, "basketweave" effect. These remnant leaf bases are called "bootjacks" or "boots", for short. The name stems from the "Y" shape that was reminiscent of devices used to aid individuals in removing boots. Transplanted palms are sometimes deliberately shorn of these bootjacks. Taller specimens are more likely to have lost their bootjacks and appear relatively smooth and columnar. The loss of bootjacks is a natural, if poorly understood, phenomenon, as the palm does not create a leaf abscission zone so the loss of the leaf bases results from some other physical or biological process.