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Florida Fauna & Flora – The Cabbage Palm

The Florida state tree is the cabbage palm. You may know this palm as a sabal palm, sabal palmetto or cabbage palmetto. Cabbage palms are one of fifteen species of palmetto palms. South Carolina has also adopted the cabbage palm as its state tree.

 

The cabbage palm appears in the background of Florida’s state seal. The seal depicts a Seminole woman spreading flowers on a shoreline with the sun’s rays near the horizon and a sailing steamboat and two cabbage palm trees. “Great Seal of the State of Florida” and the state motto “In God We Trust” encircle the seal.

 

Cabbage palms can grow to heights of 65 feet, and thus should not be planted under or near power lines. This palm is native to the southern United States, Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas. It is very salt-tolerant and often grows near the coast along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. It requires hot summers to grow well.

 

FUN FLORA FACT: Have you ever eaten swamp cabbage? Cabbage palms have a cabbage-like inner core that is harvested and eaten. If you haven’t tried swamp cabbage, you may find it on a salad bar and know it better as hearts of palm. It’s delicious!

 

Read the full July 2020 SECO News online.

Nature’s Reflections – Florida’s Cabbage Palm

Many uses and the heart is considered a delicacy

The cabbage palm (sabal palmetto) was designated the Florida state tree in 1953 thanks to the Federation of Garden Clubs, who convinced the legislature that this palm was representative of all of Florida. The sabal palm, commonly called a “cabbage palm” is the most commonly found palm throughout the state.

 

One reason for its selection was its history. Early Floridians found a variety of uses for the sabal palm. The leaf bud of the tree provided food, the fibrous trunk was used for shelter materials and the fronds were used for thatched roofs. In fact, Seminole Indians are well known for constructing “Chickee huts” with thatched roofs made from the palm fronds. Chickee is the Seminole word for house, traditionally constructed using cypress logs and thatch leaves woven together with vines or thin ropes.

 

The leaf bud portion at the tree top is considered a delicacy by many. It is often sold in local restaurants under the name “heart of palm” or “swamp cabbage.”

January 2018 Cabbage Palm Nature's Reflections

 

Additionally, the tree provides food for wildlife. Florida’s black bears enjoy eating the heart of the palm, while the cabbage palm’s fruit, black colored berries, are eaten by gray foxes, squirrels and raccoons. Birds watch for the fruit to reach that “just right” ripened stage for eating. And, butterflies drink their fill of nectar when the small white flowers appear in early summer.

 

Cabbage palms provide shelter for fox squirrels, raccoons, frogs, lizards and insects. The palm thatch is used in nest building. Cavity nesters, such as flickers and red-bellied woodpeckers carve out homes in its trunk while others hide their nests among the fronds.

 

These prolific native palms with their fan-shaped fronds are widely used in landscaping. They are an erect tree that grows to a height of about 65 feet. Found throughout Florida, they are very adaptable to wet or dry conditions and transplant easily during any season of the year, although the warm, rainy summer months are best. It is a tree that weathers Florida’s seasons well.

 

Column & photos by Sandi Staton – sandi.staton@gmail.com

 

Read the full Nature’s Reflections article in the January 2018 SECO News.