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Sabal minor
Also called Palmetto, Latanier, Bluestem Palmetto, Bush Palmetto, Little Bluestem, Scrub Palmetto, Blue Stem Palmetto
Dwarf palmetto is a small, cold-hardy fan palm that usually stays shrubby, growing to about 3 m, and can become tree-like with age. It is grown in full sun or shade and is among the most cold tolerant palms in cultivation.
Sabal minor, commonly known as the dwarf palmetto, is a small species of palm. It is native to the deep southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. It is naturally found in a diversity of habitats, including maritime forests, swamps, floodplains, and occasionally on drier sites. It is often found growing in calcareous marl soil. Sabal minor is one of the most frost and cold tolerant among North American palms.
Sabal minor is one of the most cold hardy palms in cultivation; however, it does best when grown in continental climates with hot and humid tropical summer conditions, and may struggle or grow slowly in cool summer oceanic climates. It is hardy to around −15 °C (5 °F), with selected cultivars hardy to −20 °C (−4 °F) when established. It is generally cultivated in subtropical and warm temperate climates. S. minor can grow in a wide variety of soil types, and is often found submerged in swamps in the southeastern United States. It grows in both full sun and shaded locations, though it will do best in the cooler garden zones (below USDA Zone 7) in full sun and a wind-sheltered location.
In the United States, since the 1960s, cultivation of Sabal minor has spread beyond the deep southern United States. S. minor is cultivated along the East Coast from Florida to Connecticut, and on the West Coast from Vancouver BC south to San Diego. It is a recommended horticultural plant by the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
This palm's native range spans on the Atlantic Coast from central Florida north to at least Monkey Island, North Carolina, possibly also extreme southeastern Virginia. On the Gulf Coast, it spans from central Florida to central Texas, Arkansas, north to southern Oklahoma and northern Alabama in the Coosa Valley, then south in the State of Nuevo León in Mexico.
Puerto Rico palmetto · Cabbage Palmetto · Royal Palmetto · Sabal rosei · Sonoran Palmetto · Palmetto
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sabal minor by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
