Sabal palmetto
Sabal minor
cabbage palmetto, cabbage-palm, chou palmiste, palmetto
dwarf palmetto, latanier, little blue stem
usually aerial, 20–35 cm diam.
usually subterranean.
15–30, strongly costapalmate, bearing threadlike fibers between segments;
hastula acute to acuminate, 5.3–18 cm;
segments 55–120 × 2.5–4.2 cm;
apices bifid2-cleft.
4–10, dark green, weakly costapalmate, little if at all curved, not bearing fibers between segments;
hastula obtuse, 0.8–4.7 cm;
segments not filiferous, 34–—84 ´ 1.4–3.7 cm;
apices weakly if at all bifid2-cleft.
with 3 orders of branching (not counting main inflorescence axis), arching, equaling or exceeding leaves in length.
sparsely branched with 2 orders of branching (not counting main inflorescence axis), erect, much longer than leaves.
4.1–6.7 mm.
3.5–5.2 mm.
black, spheroid, length 8–13.8 mm, diam. 8.1–13.9 mm.
brownish black, spheroid, length 6.2–8.5 mm, diam. 6.4–9.7 mm;
pericarp thin.
4–7 mm, diam. 5.4–9.7 mm diam. 2n = 36.
3.5–5.1 mm, diam. 4.4–6.9 mm diam. 2n = 36.
Sabal palmetto
Sabal minor
Sabal palmetto grows in a variety of habitats, from pine and oak associations to coastal dunes and to coastal marshes (K. E. Brown 1976; S. Zona 1990). Like S. minor, it is polymorphic at the extremes of its range; however, differences in stature, size, and trunk characteristics are not of a magnitude to warrant taxonomic rank. In the pine rocklands of Dade County, Florida, S. palmetto may flower and fruit with little or no aboveground trunk.
Although Sabal palmetto is a moderately important honey plant, its greatest economic use is as an ornamental.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Previously thought to be endemic to the United States, this species was only recently found in Nuevo León, Mexico (D. H. Goldman 1999).
Sabal minor is usually a small palm with a subterranean trunk; however, one can find individuals with larger features and well-developed aerial stems. In Louisiana, these individuals were recognized as separate species (J. K. Small 1929; M. L. Bomhard 1935), but more recently they have been treated as merely ecological variants of a single widespread species (A. Henderson et al. 1995; P. F. Ramp and L. B. Thien 1995; S. Zona 1990). Large emergent forms of S. minor were even thought by B. J. Simpson (1988) to be hybrids of that species with S. palmetto, but his claim is undocumented and unsubstantiated.
An unusual habitat for this species, a dry hillside in central Texas, was illustrated by L. Lockett (1991).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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