Sabal palmetto

A large, salt- and wind-tolerant, fan-leaved palm of the southeastern U.S. coastal plain (from coastal North Carolina south through Florida and along the Gulf Coast, with occurrences in the northern Caribbean). It develops a stout, unarmed, columnar trunk to tree size, often showing persistent “boots” of old leaf bases below the rounded crown. Leaves are strongly costa-palmate, with many rigid, narrow segments radiating from a prominent costa. It occupies dunes, maritime hammocks, pinelands, and margins of brackish to freshwater wetlands, tolerating sand, limestone, periodic flooding, and salt spray. Inflorescences are many-branched and interfoliar, typically reaching to about the level of the leaves, and bear abundant small, shiny black drupes. Common name: cabbage palmetto.

Weight: 0.2 oz.