For years, the tree shown on Florida’s State Seal was the Coconut Palm, Cocos nucifera, a species thought to have originated in the west Pacific or Indian Ocean Islands. In 1970, the Florida Legislature authorized changing the design of the State Seal to depict the Cabbage Palm, Sabal palmetto, a true native of Florida’s swampy coastal regions.
Although tree-like in appearance, palm “trees” are taxonomically classified as monocots, placing them in the category of woody stemmed grasses. Nevertheless, the Cabbage Palm was adopted as the official tree of the State of Florida in 1953. The name “cabbage” palm came from the early pioneers, who harvested the bud, called the “heart”, for food that they cooked and ate like cabbage. This was often called “swamp cabbage.”
The Cabbage Palm is one of the “fan palms”, and one of the most durable of the 15 Sabal species that are native to the United States. Due to its elevated, deeply embedded bud and fire-resistant trunk, they are able to survive intense wildfires that often kill other forest species.
Cabbage Palms grow to 50 feet in height with a crown of 12-18 feet in diameter. |
The fronds are from five to eight feet long, usually broader than long, dark green, shiny, deeply divided into narrow portions, and born on unarmed petioles from four to six feet long. The trunk of the palm is covered with a thick rind and marked in rings where the old sets of fronds have fallen off. The fruit consists of many rounded berries, about one-third inch in diameter, each containing a brownish colored seed.
The wood is light, soft, pale brown, containing numerous hard fibers or “threads.” The trunks are used for pilings and sawed into disks for ornamental table tops. Baskets, mats and hats are made from the fronds, and brushes from the fibers in the sheaths of the young leaves and trunk. |
Cabbage Palm
Sabal palmetto
|
