Sabal Etonia

[Swolte]

Finally found a nice specimen of Sabal Etonia (scrub palm) for my Sabal collection! This one has a nice blue green tint and a beautiful form. Been looking for larger specimens for a long while but I found them really hard to find living in Texas. Finally hit the jackpot at 'Indian Rock Cycads and Palms' (shout out to David Minks for excellent service and communication!).

Show me yours!

[RJ]

I don’t know anything about this other then it’s a minor… what differentiates it from othe minors? 

[Alex High]

2 hours ago, Swolte said:

Finally found a nice specimen of Sabal Etonia (scrub palm) for my Sabal collection! This one has a nice blue green tint and a beautiful form. Been looking for larger specimens for a long while but I found them really hard to find living in Texas. Finally hit the jackpot at 'Indian Rock Cycads and Palms' (shout out to David Minks for excellent service and communication!).

Show me yours!

Here's mine just north of Washington, D.C. (in Montgomery County, Maryland, zone 7a/7b). I got it from Pungo Palms Nursery in Virginia Beach this past summer, they have lots of good sized specimens of rarer Sabals for sale as well as some young Nannorrhops (I got one) and a number of other rare palms. I enclosed it in burlap wrap for the winter and covered it with leaves for some insulation. I have read about people having good success with them in zone 7b including in the D.C. area so I'm really curious to see how mine does here, I'm trying to get some more rare hardy palms to experiment with here. I will keep you all updated, I have several videos of it on my YouTube channel, Palm Planet.

40 minutes ago, RJ said:

I don’t know anything about this other then it’s a minor… what differentiates it from othe minors? 

It's not a variety of Sabal minor like Sabal 'Louisiana', it's actually its own species, from Florida. Among other differences from S. minor, S. etonia has costapalmate fronds and a (mostly) underground trunk, where the spears seem to come out a bit sideways as opposed to just straight up. Definitely looks like Sabal minor when young though.

[scarecrow]

looks a lot like Sabal minor.

[GoatLockerGuns]

43 minutes ago, RJ said:

I don’t know anything about this other then it’s a minor… what differentiates it from othe minors? 

As I understand it, one obvious morphological differentiation between the two is that Sabal etonia have strong costapalmate fronds, while Sabal minor do not (see Zona 1990, pp.630 & 644).  I have not seen a full grown Sabal etonia specimen in person (I do have many Sabal etonia 'Miamiensis' seedlings growing in pots though); however, I have many Sabal minor, Sabal palmetto, and Sabal mexicana planted on the property of roughly the same size.  The Sabal minor specimens are easily distinguishable from the others due to their weak costapalmate fronds as compared to the other Sabal spp.

[GoatLockerGuns]

14 minutes ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

The Sabal minor specimens are easily distinguishable from the others due to their weak costapalmate fronds as compared to the other Sabal spp.

@Swolte would have to take a close up of one of his Sabal etonia fronds to see the costapalmate feature on them clearly; however; here are some other examples of costapalmate features on Sabal spp.:

Sabal minor (weaker costapalmate):

Sabal palmetto (stronger costapalmate):

[teddytn]

Here’s an etonia I’ve got planted still pretty small. Definitely different growth habit in my experience from Sabal minor. Here it is in a pot August 2021. Notice the skinny split leaves. Every Sabal minor and Sabal minor variant I’ve played with at a small size all go from skinny strap leaves to fatter cupped strap leaves, maybe a split leaf or 2 and then straight to palmate. Pic of Sabal minors about the same age below

[ahosey01]

I have had a young S etonia for like three years that has put out maybe 5 leaves total.  Will post a pic later today when it is light outside.

[Bigfish]

Here's a mature Sabal etonia growing in Tennessee.  Very costapalmate leaves!  The inflorescence/infructescence is also a way to very easily distinguish it from Sabal minor. 

[teddytn]

1 hour ago, Bigfish said:

Here's a mature Sabal etonia growing in Tennessee.  Very costapalmate leaves!  The inflorescence/infructescence is also a way to very easily distinguish it from Sabal minor. 

Very cool to see in TN! Thank you for posting

[ESVA]

On 12/5/2022 at 8:07 PM, teddytn said:

Very cool to see in TN! Thank you for posting

I was down on Honeymoon Island near Clearwater, FL, and Sabal etonias were growing like weeds.  The sun was so hot, everyone on the beach, including me, had picked out a Sabal etonia to take shade under.  Went to a few of the local nurseries looking to buy a Sabal etonia and all they had were the normal nursery stock I could buy at a big box store.  Looking online, I did find some forest service in Florida which was offering bundles of 50  straplings, which was more than I had room for, so I procrastinated as I wasn't sure how cold hardy they were. Nice to know that they can survive in TN.  Now I'll have to make room for a couple here in Accomack County, VA. 

[Bigfish]

27 minutes ago, ESVA said:

I was down on Honeymoon Island near Clearwater, FL, and Sabal etonias were growing like weeds.  The sun was so hot, everyone on the beach, including me, had picked out a Sabal etonia to take shade under.  Went to a few of the local nurseries looking to buy a Sabal etonia and all they had were the normal nursery stock I could buy at a big box store.  Looking online, I did find some forest service in Florida which was offering bundles of 50  straplings, which was more than I had room for, so I procrastinated as I wasn't sure how cold hardy they were. Nice to know that they can survive in TN.  Now I'll have to make room for a couple here in Accomack County, VA. 

Those are all Sabal palmetto on Honeymoon Island. 

[ESVA]

2 hours ago, Bigfish said:

Those are all Sabal palmetto on Honeymoon Island. 

These weren't trees. They were more like a 5-ft tall bush

[Bigfish]

1 hour ago, ESVA said:

These weren't trees. They were more like a 5-ft tall bush

Still, they were just small, juvenile Sabal palmetto.    I know they look similar though.

[ESVA]

42 minutes ago, Bigfish said:

Still, they were just small, juvenile Sabal palmetto.    I know they look similar though.

OK. I liked the  costapalmate leaves though. 

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

On 1/20/2023 at 4:37 PM, ESVA said:

I was down on Honeymoon Island near Clearwater, FL, and Sabal etonias were growing like weeds.  The sun was so hot, everyone on the beach, including me, had picked out a Sabal etonia to take shade under.  Went to a few of the local nurseries looking to buy a Sabal etonia and all they had were the normal nursery stock I could buy at a big box store.  Looking online, I did find some forest service in Florida which was offering bundles of 50  straplings, which was more than I had room for, so I procrastinated as I wasn't sure how cold hardy they were. Nice to know that they can survive in TN.  Now I'll have to make room for a couple here in Accomack County, VA. 

 I live down here and love honeymoon island.  These are pretty much all Sabal Palmetto though.   
 

Sabal Etonia is not usually found at the coast either as it is endemic to the Florida sand pine scrub in inland peninsular Florida.  There are however some disjunct areas of this now rare eco region in the costal Tampa bay are though where it is possible they may be present.