Species
+

Sabal palmetto (Walter) Lodd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.

Cabbage Palm, Carolina palmetto, blue palmetto, cabbage palm

Climate known 65 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sabal palmetto, also known as cabbage palm, cabbage palmetto, sabal palm, palmetto palm, blue palmetto, Carolina palmetto, common palmetto, and swamp cabbage, is one of 15 species of palmetto palm. It is native to the Southeast United States Coastal Plain, the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and the West Indies.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sabal palmetto”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Sabal

Sabal is a genus of New World palms. Currently, there are 17 recognized species of Sabal, including one hybrid species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sabal”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Walter) Lodd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.
Native to
Alabama, Florida, Georgia +5
Wild records
1823 in range· 295 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1363mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 201 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1363 mm a year, wettest August at 201 mm, driest November at 58 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 3.9 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Chamaerops palmetto (Walter) Michx.; Corypha palmetto Walter; Corypha umbraculifera Jacq.; Inodes blackburniana (Schult. & Schult.f.) O.F.Cook; Inodes palmetto (Walter) O.F.Cook and 14 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1033 mm of 1363 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1363 mm a year, wettest August at 201 mm, driest November at 58 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1363 mm a year at the habitat, 1033 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month August at 201 mm, driest November at 58 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1272 mm to 1556 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 3.9 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.9 °C, the absolute minimum -3.2 °C, 19 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.6 °C to 16.4 °C), warmest day 30.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 3.9 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 12 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1363 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 865 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 20–42RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 865 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 15–2322 / 16–2524 / 19–2626 / 22–2829 / 26–3130 / 28–3231 / 29–3231 / 29–3230 / 28–3127 / 24–2924 / 20–2622 / 16–24
Night °C12 / 8–1613 / 9–1715 / 12–1817 / 15–2021 / 19–2324 / 23–2525 / 23–2625 / 24–2624 / 22–2520 / 18–2317 / 13–2113 / 9–18
Rain mm65 / 45–10174 / 54–9598 / 66–12067 / 59–8579 / 60–125191 / 139–242187 / 144–223201 / 173–241179 / 141–22998 / 71–14058 / 49–8766 / 41–92
DLI22 / 19–2426 / 24–2933 / 31–3539 / 39–4142 / 40–4339 / 37–4139 / 37–4036 / 34–3731 / 30–3327 / 26–2923 / 21–2520 / 17–22
RH %58 / 58–6058 / 58–6058 / 57–6057 / 56–6059 / 57–6263 / 62–6563 / 62–6564 / 63–6663 / 62–6460 / 59–6159 / 58–6059 / 58–60

Each figure is the median across the 865 grid cells holding the 1718 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1236:1948 (28.175, -82.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 865 distinct grid cells holding the 1718 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1236:1948 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_-82.500, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Bahamas, Cuba, Turks-Caicos Is.· introduced: Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.32, -80.084 · in the densest population, 943 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1823 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 295 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 278 km away. 36 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 105 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1823 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmettoSabal palmetto

Photographs: (c) William J. Deml, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Stuart Cable, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Scott Allen Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sabal palmetto, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

SEA-LEVEL RISE AND COASTAL FOREST RETREAT ON THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA, USA
Kimberlyn Williams, Katherine C. Ewel, Richard P. Stumpf, Francis E. Putz (1999) · Ecology
Sea‐level rise and drought interactions accelerate forest decline on the Gulf Coast of Florida, USA
Larisa R.G. DeSantis, Smriti S. Bhotika, Kimberlyn Williams, Francis E. Putz (2007) · Global Change Biology
Microtopography and Woody Plant Regeneration in a Hardwood Floodplain Swamp in Florida
Jonathan H. Titus (1990) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
The Effects of Flooding on the Swamp Forest in Lake Ocklawaha, Florida
William R. Harms, Hans T. Schreuder, Donal D. Hook, Claud L. Brown (1980) · Ecology
Water balance in the arborescent palm,Sabal palmetto.II. Transpiration and stem water storage
N. Michèle Holbrook, Thomas R. Sinclair (1992) · Plant Cell & Environment
Hurricanes and the Urban Forest: I. Effects on Southeastern United States Coastal Plain Tree Species
Mary L. Duryea, Eliana Kampf, Ramon C. Littell (2007) · Arboriculture & Urban Forestry
A casualty of climate change? Loss of freshwater forest islands on Florida's Gulf Coast
Amy K. Langston, David Kaplan, Francis E. Putz (2017) · Global Change Biology
Frequency and Time-Domain Dielectric Measurements of Stem Water Content in the Arborescent Palm,Sabal palmetto
N. Michèle Holbrook, Michael J. Burns, Thomas R. Sinclair (1992) · Journal of Experimental Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Sabal 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.