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I've looked into the possibility of Sabal minor being "native" to southeastern VA for a long time and still don't know for sure if they are there or not naturally. I came across a Facebook post about a year ago of someone claiming they've seen them growing in marshland in the Back Bay on the Virginia side and how they've been boating there for years, but there was no photos or confirmation. One thing is for sure, the climate definitely can support them growing on their own and the Currituck Sound (with Monkey Island) is connected via land and waterways to southeastern Virginia. It wouldn't surprise me if someone one day posted a stand of them growing out in a marsh that has been overlooked, as most people are not looking out for them like we are lol. There are so many planted now that we may never know for certain after a few decades once they start spreading from those plantings.

No, it’s very relevant. This whole argument is confusion over the ambiguity between tropical as a climate designation and tropical as a physical, geographical designation. The reason for the confusion lies in the reality that a truly tropical location, when it happens to have what we would term tropical flora, is always going to be different from what we find outside of the tropics, including in South Florida, where we do have tropical vegetation and, in general, a tropical climate. In the case of Bogota, there is just gonna be more winter sunshine than you’ll have outside of the tropics. I’m pretty sure most of us here understand all of this. Yes, South Florida has a broadly tropical climate, and supported a subset of tropical Laura natively, and now a huge number of tropical plants have been brought in successfully. No, no part of Florida is within the tropics, and this partly explains why every single corner of the state gets colder than it would were it in the tropics. Yes, there are places within the true tropics that are at the same elevation as Florida that can get colder than Florida, but there is no peninsula or island in the true tropics of which I am aware they can get as cold as Florida does as regularly as it does. This is where Florida’s physical location outside of the tropics matters: there’s a natural limit to how far you can push things over the course of a century because it’s tropical climate is not in the true tropics. were Florida more temperate and in the tropics, we wouldn’t have these long discussions because we’d all be like people who live in Puerto Rico and it would be nothing to plant all these plants and there wouldn’t be an annual white-knuckle terror about this or that freeze.

And yet, Bogota IS tropical! And S. FL’s climate—however “tropical” it may be—will never be as tropical as even a cool montane climate within the true tropics. I lived in Australia’s Wet Tropics for over seven years. Our house had an unprotected lipstick palm out front as standard landscaping. Before that, I lived in Florida. Both places had hot, humid summers. Both had dry, cool winters. 90% of the landscaping plants were shared. But only FL has its tropical gardeners worry almost every year about possible cold snaps. Not once in seven years was there a low in Cairns that threatened my plants. I now live in Tasmania, the coldest state in Australia. We’re at the equivalent latitude of Chicago. There’s a huge bougainvillea on our street (never protected), fruiting passion fruit in the city centre, queen palms, and even a few king palms! None is protected during winter. In other words, the lowlands of Australia’s coldest state is more temperate than north FL, and whatever you can grow in Key West may be grown in parts of temperate Australia well outside the tropics, yet few (if any) of such areas would be argued to be truly tropical. I love Florida, and, yes, S. Florida has a broadly tropical climate, but unlike such climates within the true tropics, palm enthusiasts are in for long-term stress and heartache because it’s not truly a tropical location.

From did the best to did the worst: tier 1 rhapis buccaneer palms dyspis cabadae baby in semi protected spot tier 2 cyphophoenix elegans pembanas kentiopsis oliviformis (very exposed) triangle triangle teddy bear hybrid tier 3 flamethrowers florida thatch unknown clumping dypis tier 4 hurricane palms ( montgomery palms (tall and exposed) royal palm (most exposed spot) tier 5 coconut (these look real bad, crown too high to see in there) licuala grandis obi island I can’t tell yet: old man palm (somewhere between 2-3) bottle palm (probably a 4)

This is a reasonable statement, but “tropics” in English means between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; “equatorial” means at or near the equator. One could not call the Bahamas an “equatorial nation,” nor would anyone say that Townsville, Australia is “equatorial.” However, “tropical” Australia is only so referenced when it is within the tropics. The problem is climate types, which are a mix of flora, temperature, and rainfall, include the term “tropical,” and a such, S. Florida is a tropical climate, but it is not within the tropics and can never have the same minutes of winter sunshine as anywhere in the true tropics. From that perspective, even Key West is subtropical, despite its being more temperate in winter that high-altitude, inland parts of tropical Queensland.

You mad, bro?

The one on your left is enormous. Sabal?

This is killer . Nothing better than a trunkless sabal that’s nice and fat with Corypha ish petioles just gorgeous . And not to mention the parajubaea 😍