Sabal mexicana

[SubTropicRay]

The downtown Tampa Publix Greenwise supermarket has installed gorgeous landscaping.  Included in the mix is what I believe to be Sabal mexicana.  Never having seen this species up close, I was very impressed.

 

[Xenon]

Doesn't look like a Sabal mexicana at all imo. Maybe S. bermudana?

[idontknowhatnametuse]

There are a lot of wild sabal mexicanas close to where I live but that palm doesn't look like a sabal mexicana to me

[SubTropicRay]

Palmpedia has photos of both Sabal mexicana and S. bermudana that include short, stout plants.  The Sabal bermudana I've seen are more robust than these but Palmpedia has photos of smaller and stout specimens as well.  I've never seen S.  mexicana in person.

From Palmpedia:

"Sabal mexicana (the Texas plant was formerly separated as Sabal texana): Increasingly, it is being used in landscapes in Texas. It looks similar to S. palmetto but is shorter, tends to have a stouter trunk and has a larger fruit that also has a flattened sperical shape." 

[bubba]

I do not know what that is but it is one stout Sabal!

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Sabal Bermudana as far as I can tell

[Fusca]

5 hours ago, SubTropicRay said:

Palmpedia has photos of both Sabal mexicana and S. bermudana that include short, stout plants.  The Sabal bermudana I've seen are more robust than these but Palmpedia has photos of smaller and stout specimens as well.  I've never seen S.  mexicana in person.

From Palmpedia:

"Sabal mexicana (the Texas plant was formerly separated as Sabal texana): Increasingly, it is being used in landscapes in Texas. It looks similar to S. palmetto but is shorter, tends to have a stouter trunk and has a larger fruit that also has a flattened sperical shape." 

Below is a pic I just took 10 minutes ago of Sabal mexicana currently flowering.  They tend to keep the old leaf boots quite a while.  This particular palm has at least 15' of trunk.  Palm photo above I took at the Mexican border in habitat.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Fusca

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

8 hours ago, Xenon said:

Doesn't look like a Sabal mexicana at all imo. Maybe S. bermudana?

I thought the same thing.  

 

[NBTX11]

On 6/20/2022 at 10:48 AM, SubTropicRay said:

Palmpedia has photos of both Sabal mexicana and S. bermudana that include short, stout plants.  The Sabal bermudana I've seen are more robust than these but Palmpedia has photos of smaller and stout specimens as well.  I've never seen S.  mexicana in person.

From Palmpedia:

"Sabal mexicana (the Texas plant was formerly separated as Sabal texana): Increasingly, it is being used in landscapes in Texas. It looks similar to S. palmetto but is shorter, tends to have a stouter trunk and has a larger fruit that also has a flattened sperical shape." 

Sabal Mexicana is not really shorter than Palmetto at mature height.  I have seen some very tall old Mexicana in the San Antonio area.  The trunk is a little stouter, and the crowns are a little bigger than Palmetto.  That is the main difference.

Edited June 24, 2022 by NBTX11

[Xerarch]

4 minutes ago, NBTX11 said:

Sabal Mexicana is not really shorter than Palmetto at mature height.  I have seen some very tall old Mexicana in the San Antonio area.  The trunk is a little stouter, and the crowns are a little bigger than Palmetto.  That is the main difference.

By my observation, vs palmetto, mexicana is overall more robust, thicker trunk, larger leaves, darker green leaves or at least a noticeably different shade of green,  a larger, more open crown does not give it the lollipop look of palmetto. The tallest mexicana I’ve seen (including in habitat and others here that are as big as any in habitat) are as tall as any palmetto that is commonly seen even in Florida , however, boy I’ve seen some palmetto habitat photos on this forum with some shockingly tall palmetto, as tall as a very tall W robusta. I think the tallest palmetto outstretch the tallest mexicana by a decent margin as far as I’ve been able to ascertain. 

[WaianaeCrider]

My Mexican is thick and not self cleaning.  This was 2 years ago.

[Xerarch]

Here are some nice size mexicana here in town, especially those two in the top pic, the group in the bottom pic, actually quite a large group but you can’t see the rest of them are more average for tall ones if that makes sense. All of these look very different than the original one at the top of the post, I agree it is probably not mexicana. 
 

[ruskinPalms]

To be honest the mexicana look pretty much like palmetto. There are huge variations of palmetto here. I’ve seen some that have huge crowns and robust trunks, others are spindly with little crowns. The old growth ones are as tall as Washingtonia if they somehow have dodged lightning over the years. Sabals are hard to ID from what I’ve seen on this forum over the years. 

Edited June 25, 2022 by ruskinPalms
Error

[ruskinPalms]

If anything I’d call this Sabal causiarum