Florida State Tree - Sabal palmetto

Sabal palmetto, also known as Cabbage Palm, Palmetto, Cabbage Palmetto, and Sabal Palm, is one of 15 species of palmetto palm (Arecaceae, genus Sabal). It is native to the southeastern United States, Cuba, and the Bahamas. In the United States it occurs throughout Florida and into coastal Georgia and South Carolina with a single extant population in North Carolina on Cape Fear, Smiths Island. Although historically reported from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, this population has long been extirpated.

Sabal palmetto grows up to 20 m in height, with a trunk up to 60 cm diameter. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. Each leaf is 1.5-2 m long, with 40-60 leaflets up to 80 cm long. The flowers are yellowish-white, 5 mm across, produced in large compound panicles up to 2.5 m long, extending out beyond the leaves. The fruit is a black drupe about 1 cm long containing a single seed. It is extremely salt-tolerant and is often seen growing near the Atlantic Ocean coast, and also frost-tolerant, surviving short periods of temperatures as low as -14 °C.