Sabal Louisiana in habitat

[jfrye01@live.com]

Took a little trek from my home in Kansas down to central Louisiana in search of native Sabals. I hit the jackpot! These palms grow vigorously from Alexandria and south...I was able to collect seed from several palms, unfortunately, they are infested with weevil eggs, so I must find a way to kill these before the weevils invade the seeds (any tips from the experts here? I've never had luck killing these unless I freeze the seeds, but I'm guessing there's probably a better way). I found some massive palms near Alexandria, these must be ancient. I'll post pictures shortly. 

 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Soak in an insecticide solution. 

[jfrye01@live.com]

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by jfrye01@live.com

[jfrye01@live.com]

Heading up US-71 towards Alexandria, I ran into these massive specimens...

[jfrye01@live.com]

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

A few of those are giants.  Ive only seen minor that big south of Lafayette. The ones south of Alexandria in that protected forrest off of i49 always seemed average,  but i never went back there and walked around in that swamp to look for exceptions. LA swamps are not my natutal habitat. 

[smithgn]

Good lawd, that last pic of the sabal is at least 10 feet tall. And I read somewhere, where they max out at 6 feet or so... Yeah right!

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

I can't find a pic of the one that I saw south of Lafayette, but it was about that big (don't know Jacobs height) and ancient. It was right on a property line which saved it from being bulldozed like its relatives probably were.  

With that said the more I look at the palm in Jacobs picture the fronds appear to be too deeply costapalmate, so I am apt to say that is not a 100% minor.

[Anthony_B]

On 10/11/2017, 11:41:34, jfrye01@live.com said:

That is impressive.  I have always found it interesting that the Sabal Minor have covered the Southeast completely from North Carolina down to Florida all the way over to Texas, but the Sabal Palmetto hasn't.  I have heard reports of Sabal Palmetto as far west as Mobile, Alabama, but they've been mostly extirpated from the area.  You'd think Louisiana and Mississippi would be crawling with them...I mean, they exist in North Carolina and the climates of those states are much more hospitable to the plant.  Go figure.
 

I was out at Carolina Beach State Park last weekend and came across a pretty impressive specimen.  Not as impressive as yours, but cool nonetheless, and don't forget here in North Carolina I actually am approaching their maximum northern limits

 

It's tough to tell but that specimen had to have been 7 feet tall.  It towered over me.

Edited October 13, 2017 by Anthony_B

[Ben G.]

Thanks for posting all of these pics. Those are some great finds for sure.

[Bigfish]

Nice pictures, Jacob!  Watch out for snakes, dude...

[mdsonofthesouth]

SO what youre saying is it takes forever and a day for a Sabal Louisiana to trunk 

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

12 hours ago, mdsonofthesouth said:

SO what youre saying is it takes forever and a day for a Sabal Louisiana to trunk 

Those things grow ever so painfully sloooooooooooooooooooowwwwwww. 

[mdsonofthesouth]

35 minutes ago, DCA_Palm_Fan said:

Those things grow ever so painfully sloooooooooooooooooooowwwwwww. 

 

Maybe Ill try Sabal x brazoriensis instead. But judging from the sabal minor my grandma gave me seems all sabals grow slow as molasses in winter. I want to badly to try a trunking sabal, but I just dont have the funds to buy a large palm lol. 

[Brad Mondel]

My Louisiana grows fronds quickly but trunk? No. 

[WestCoastGal]

Wow perspective is everything! Great photos.