Sabal mexicana

This robust, solitary fan palm ranges from southern Texas through Mexico into Central America, mainly in the seasonally dry tropics. In Texas it grows on mesic hammocks, floodplains, levees, riverbanks and swamps. A remnant native stand survives at the Sabal Palm Sanctuary on the Rio Grande outside Brownsville. It grows to about 15 m tall, with a trunk 20–35 cm in diameter. The trunk is often clothed in persistent, basally split leaf bases (“boots”) that form a crisscross pattern. The crown holds 10–30 strongly costapalmate leaves with unarmed petioles and filiferous segments. The arching inflorescence branches to three orders and is roughly as long as the leaves. It closely resembles Sabal palmetto but has larger fruits: black, oblate-spheroid drupes 14.8–19.3 mm in diameter, compared with 8.1–13.9 mm in S. palmetto. Common names: Texas palmetto, Mexican palmetto, Rio Grande palmetto.

Weight: 2.0 oz.