Sabal palm is easygoing, once you get it going
By GUEST COLUMN
Published July 17, 2006
Homeowners often plant a pair of sabal palms, Sabal palmetto, on either side of the driveway or in a small grove of three or five straight-trunked trees.
U.S. 19 through Crystal River is lined with them. The well-designed entry to Citrus Hills on State Road 44 features them, and Fort Island Beach is bordered with these palms swaying in the breeze and framing the sunset.
A signature plant of the Florida skyline and occurring throughout the state, sabal palm became the state tree in 1953.
Highly adaptable to almost any situation - sandy or fertile, moist or arid, limestone or acidic, beachfront or inland - frost-tolerant sabal palms range as far north as South Carolina and west to Texas in Zones 8 to 11.
It loves a sunny exposure and is intolerant of shade. The fan-shaped leaves have a mid rib, are called costa-palmate, are 3 to 5 feet wide and are deeply divided into segments with thread-like filaments along the edges. Old leaves hang down and are the favorite roost of yellow bats. Lasiurus ega. The dense crown gives birds cover and nest sites.
The stately native palm trees gracing Citrus County began to flower in mid June. Long stalks carrying clusters of hundreds of small, white, male and female flowers gracefully arch from the canopy of fronds. Once pollinated by a hoard of insects, flowers fade as green, shiny, round berries about a half-inch in diameter develop. In the fall the fruit ripens to black to provide food for a variety of wildlife.
Seeds sprout the following spring, develop a deep burrowing root and grow very slowly. Young plants up to 10 years old are available in pots at smaller nurseries. A 10-inch wide potted sabal palm may be 8 years old and cost $8. In a 14-inch pot, it might cost $15 at a wholesale nursery.
Since roots die back when a tree is harvested from the farm field, all fronds are usually removed, except a few that are tied to protect the single growth bud. Commercial vendors need heavy equipment to deliver and plant large mature palms.
It takes a full year to develop a new root system, and leaves sprout only in early summer. So, a transplanted big palm must live on the food and water stored in its trunk. Water daily until some roots develop to prevent drying out.
Unlike other trees, palm trunks are not bark and wood but are a cylinder of lengthwise fibers surrounded by a thin shell. Damage or carving on the shell is permanent, as no new growth occurs on the outside.
A tree with a 10-foot clear gray trunk could be up to 50 years old and cost about $300 to have transplanted to your garden. The bases of dead leaves, or "boots," are often still attached to the trunk in an attractive crosshatch pattern.
Resurrection fern, Pleopeltis polypodioides, and goldfoot fern, Phlebodium aureum, are two native epiphytes that frequently colonize the sabal boots. Alien sword ferns, Nephrolepis cordifolia, and N. Multiflora, both on the Florida Exotic Plant Pest Council's list of invasive species, can be removed by hand or killed with 2 percent glysophate sprays such as Lesco's Prosecutor and Roundup.
Native, drought- and frost-tolerant companion plants include coontie, Zamia plumila; dwarf blue-stem; scrub palmettos, Sabal minor and Sabal etonia; needle palm, Rhapidophylum histrix; and "silver" and green saw palmetto, Serenoa repens.
Explore. Look around the Nature Coast, in parks and in gardens, to see fine examples of coonties and sabal palms.
Editor's note: This weekly article is provided by Jane Weber, professional gardener, grower, consultant, designer and environmentalist. Visit her Certified Florida Yard and Backyard Wildlife Habitat, 5019 W Stargazer Lane, Dunnellon. Call (352) 465-0649.