large Sabal Louisiana in habitat

[Sabal_Louisiana]

I took this pic last month near Lake Pontchartrain west of New Orleans.  Height is about 12 feet. Trunk is about 8' including crown. 

There are some I think even bigger in the vicinity but hard to get to in the swamp.

There used to be one on Bayou Savauge NWR in New Orleans East that must have been about 14 feet tall but it was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. I wish I still had a picture of it.

Edited March 15, 2019 by Sabal_Louisiana
typo

[Mr.SamuraiSword]

wow! thats awesome!

[Tropicdoc]

Cool

[Xerarch]

Holy smokes that’s a legit trunk and on a minor! Wonder how old that is. I’ve often wondered why S. palmetto don’t range all along the gulf coast. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

One theory as to why Sabal palmetto has not spread more east along the Gulf coast is that once every few hundred years a great arctic freeze comes along and devastates them because the brunt of most big arctic outbreaks tend to dive down into the South Central instead of the SE US (e.g. in 1899, 1989). acting as a barrier to slow but steady migration westward.

This sounds plausible but I am skeptical because S. palmetto is very cold hardy and if this was the case, they might not range as far north as North Carolina. Although I would have to say that recovery of decimated populations would be more likely along the SE Atlantic than the North central Gulf coast.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Sabal_Louisiana
typo

[Austinpalm]

It seems likely that a few S. palmetto made it to the Western Gulf Coast at some point as genetic work on S. brazoriensis has shown it is more likely a hybrid of S. minor and S. palmetto than of S. minor and S. mexicana. This is particularly surprising as remnant populations of S. mexicana have apparently been located much farther north along the Texas coast  (Jackson County) than previously thought.

 

Great pix by the way.  I have seen similar (but smaller so far) palmetto near Houston.  

Edited March 19, 2019 by Austinpalm

[Sabal_Louisiana]

Here's a closer look at the trunks for the ones shown in the first pic.

[Allen]

That's some good looking trunks.  Now if I just live long enough for mine to look like that!!