Friday, December 13, 2019

December 13, 2019



Location: My backyard, Fellsmere

Shown here are two Palmettos,
At the top Cabbage, the bottom is Saw
The difference is where the stem ends
Saw palmetto is blunt, Cabbage points like a claw.

(Note: We were out at Archbold Biological Research Station a few weeks back, and the ranger gave us a really cool tour. One of the things that he talked about was how someone had done a study out there and was able to age some of the Saw Palmettos to be thousands of years old. It was quite fascinating. Today when I was preparing to write this blog, I searched the web and found the study. I was super excited, and it was very interesting read. But when I went to actually write the blog, I looked at the photo I took out at Archbold - it wasn't a Saw Palmetto at all! So, I decided that it might be more helpful to teach myself and others the difference between the palms. And here is a link to the article that started all this, which I highly recommend reading - to read it, download the PDF and scroll to the second article.)

Sources: A primer on Florida’s prolific saw palmetto and cabbage palm

Photo and text © 2019 Dee Fairbanks Simpson

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