Sabal minor 

Dwarf Palmetto
Bluestem Palm

Florida native

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A frequent evergreen shrub of the palm family found in moist to wet hammocks and woods of other lowands, bluffs and ravine slopes throughout most of Florida north of Lake Okeechobee. The range includes the southeast gulf states, extending into Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina.
Dwarf palmettos have an underground stem with a crown of palm frond leaves to 2.1m (about 7 ft.) tall. The petioles are smooth, 1-2cm (~1/2 to 3/4 in.) wide and up to 1.5m (5 ft.) long. The leaf blades are fan-shaped, orbicular and nearly flat. Also called bluestem palm, this is differentiated from the other Sabal species in Florida most easily by having a costa that extends less than one quarter the length of the undivided section of the blade. The blade is typically 1.2m (4 ft.) wide and is made up of about 30 segments each 3cm (~1-1/4 in.) wide without fibers along the margins nor in the sinuses between segments. The tiny white flowers appear from spring until fall in branching clusters at the end of long stems. The fruit is a shiny, black, spherical drupe 6-10mm (1/4 to nearly 1/2 in.) in diameter.

Sabal minor is a member of the Arecaceae - Palm family.

Other species of the Sabal genus in the Wild Florida Photo database:
  Sabal etonia - SCRUB PALMETTO
  Sabal palmetto - CABBAGE PALM

Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species

USDA Plant Profile for this species

Date record last modified: Jul 30, 2021