South Carolina State Tree

South Carolina State Tree

Sabal Palm 

 
 
Sabal Palm or Cabbage Palmetto Arecaceae Sabal palmetto South Carolina Sabal Palm tree
 
Leaf
 
Alternate, palmately compound, fan shaped; leaflets very long (4 to 6
feet) and lance-shaped, leaf stalks are long, extend through the leaf, and are without sharp edges; green in color, overall leaf nearly round and several feet long.  

Flower

Small white flowers occur on large (several feet), branched clusters, appearing in early summer.

Fruit

Fleshy drupe, nearly round, 1/3 to 1/2 inch across, dark shiny blue,
maturing in early fall and persistent into the winter.

Twig

Absent, since leaves appear directly out of the unbranched trunk.

Bark

Gray-brown, tough, split vertically.

Form

Tall (to 80 feet), straight trunk with a short rounded crown.

South Carolina Sabal Palm tree
Copyright 2019 Virginia Tech Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental
Conservation; Photos and text by: John Seiler, Edward Jensen,
Alex Niemiera, and John Peterson; Silvics reprinted from Ag
Handbook 654; range map source information