Sabal minor

Dwarf palmetto
Sabal minor

This low-growing fan palm is one of the most frost-hardy species, surviving temperatures as low as –18 °C in the wild. It is native to the south eastern United States from Florida to North Carolina and inland to Oklahoma. This toughness, coupled to its low-growing character (often only a metre tall), make it a popular landscape plant.

Its leaves are classic fans, rounded in shape and dissected into some forty component leaflets, which radiate from the tip of a bare stalk. As in all palms, the leaflets are linked when juvenile, but progressively separate backwards from the apex as the fan enlarges and opens.

This post is part of The World of Palms Glasshouse Trail