uninhabited island discovered - wild sabal palms on beach

[Sandy Loam]

Attached see these photos of a beach we recently discovered on an uninhabited island that can only be reached by boat (off the west coast of Florida, outside the Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge ----- very isolated -- no population nearby). Check out the huge rootballs on the old sabal palmettos which line the beach. Obviously, over the course of a couple hundred years, the ocean had removed the sand from around the base of these sabal palmettos, but they are still alive. Take a look at the one with the rootball almost totally exposed. Clearly, the beach used to be higher than it is today.

We discovered this island on a sea kayaking trip in the Gulf of Mexico. There was nobody on the island except for us, and no boats nearby. It was incredibly isolated......except for all the wild sabal palmettos. I would imagine that few people have ever set foot on this island.

Enjoy the photos and please don't hesitate to post comments.

[Sandy Loam]

Sorry, the photos didn't post. I am trying again now.

[Sandy Loam]

Great. The photos finally posted. Click to enlarge -- it's worth it!

[_Keith]

Great photos and what looks like was a great experience. Thanks for posting.

[edric]

Great photos. How big do you figure the island is? Ed

[DoomsDave]

Did you get any seed?

Great pictures, tell us more.

[bgl]

That must have been an amazing experience! Thanks for posting the photos! Outstanding!

[Sandy Loam]

The size of the island, you ask? I really have no idea. It was pretty small. In about 3 minutes you could walk from one end of it to the other.

I was just amazed that these sabal palms could sit there with their roots half exposed by beach erosion and were totally unaffected by it. They all looked quite healthy. Obviously sabal palmettos are extremely saltwater-tolerant.

Sabal palmettos are like weeds anywhere in the vicinity (so nothing special there), but the discovery of the island and beach was unique.

[Tyrone]

What great pics. Those Sabals are like the coconuts of the region growing right down to the high tide mark. I have a much higher regard for this species now that I've seen them in habitat.

Did you find Yellowbeard's hidden treasure????

[Stevetoad]

great shots!

[The7thLegend]

Great photos! Nice clean and arching trunks... very tropical looking. Thanks for sharing.

[waykoolplantz]

Did you find Yellowbeard's hidden treasure????

Isn't the map still tattoo'd on your head ?

[ghar41]

These are incredible! Any more pictures?

[Tyrone]

Did you find Yellowbeard's hidden treasure????

Isn't the map still tattoo'd on your head ?

Oh yeah!!!!

"We're going on a voyage to kill plants" LOL

[Cedric]

Fantastic, I never ever tire of seeing palms in the wild, nothing quite like it. Those roots are incredible, picture perfect illustration of a palm and its roots I wonder how many more roots are still in the sand, its still standing so assume quite a lot. Looks like there could've been the odd hurricane going on there with some major changes to the (beach) topography, those palms look like they weren't growing right on the beach before.

It reminds me of some of the wild beaches in Africa I used to know so well, going back some of them have changed completely, unrecognisably so. Just takes a storm or two to wipe out even giant dune forests. The endless cycle.

Its so deeply reassuring somehow that transient nature of the world and the things in it, us included.

[Sandy Loam]

Hello Glenn. Yes, there are more photos, but I'll have to pull them out of my friend's dropbox (the hatless guy in the photos; I'm the guy wearing the hat).

We discovered other beach islands that day, but the one in the photo was most dramatic.

Wild sabal palmetto palms are nothing unusual around here, especially as you approach wet, undeveloped areas. There are some forests of sabal palmettos with surprisingly tall trunks. Some are much taller than the ones in the photos above. a 200-year old sabal palmetto can tower almost like a washingtonia robusta.

I have also seen sabal palmettos in habitat. It all seems to depend on the genetic tendency of the group of palms in the immediate vicinity, and perhaps sun exposure and soil type as well. I have noticed that sabals growing in very shaded forests grow extremely long and drooping petioles spreading very wide, yet are quite stout and seem to keep all of their leaf bases. They also seem to have much thicker trunks. Surprisingly, they are the same species as the sabal palmettos in the photos above, even though they look completely unrelated.

[Sandy Loam]

Oops. I meant to say, "I have also seen SUCKERING sabal palmettos in habitat." (I inadvertently omitted the word "suckering")

They are not common, but you will sometimes see them with 3 trunks.

[The7thLegend]

I have also seen sabal palmettos in habitat. It all seems to depend on the genetic tendency of the group of palms in the immediate vicinity, and perhaps sun exposure and soil type as well. I have noticed that sabals growing in very shaded forests grow extremely long and drooping petioles spreading very wide, yet are quite stout and seem to keep all of their leaf bases. They also seem to have much thicker trunks. Surprisingly, they are the same species as the sabal palmettos in the photos above, even though they look completely unrelated.

I've noticed this also.

[Explorer]

Maybe they get acces to fresh water. Fresh water is lighter then saltwater. And its on sand they grow. And there could also be a bit of seepage of fresh water from inland. And with hurricanes you also get plenty rain wich washes the salt out of the sand. Well you should dig near such beach Sabals and taste the water. Then you know.

Here some info. I had a look at it and it seems that on a beach just a couple of meters from the sea you just can allready have several meters of freshwater below your feet. So enough for a Sabal to survive and grow!

And as that island is uninhabited there is no waterextraction for by humans. So a pristine natural situation.

sofia.er.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/2004-1369/

pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2003/circ1262/

Alexander

Edited August 4, 2014 by Explorer

[NorthFlpalmguy]

There's some around Carabelle Beach with the full root balls exosed as well. I would imagine as the soil erodes, the perimeter roots harden and the base roots pull double duty. It is amazing and cool to see.

[Loxahatchee Adam]

The island, he mentioned, is somewhere outside the Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. So it's essentially in a river delta. The 'ocean' around the beach likely varies between fresh and highly brackish depending on river flows, wind surges, etc.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Loxahatchee Adam

[Sandy Loam]

Incidentally, we discovered some other small islands with little beaches during our kayaking trip that day. One had several topped-over sabal palmettos on the beach, visibly due to beach erosion and loss of appropriate soil habitat for these palms. Perhaps this means that the ultimate destiny of the palms in the photos above will be death in another 50 years or so, as beach erosion continues. Admittedly, there were no significant sand dunes to protect against soil erosion on the beach in the photos above or on any of the islands that we discovered in the vicinity (unlike most Gulf of Mexico Florida beaches, which traditionally have large white sand dunes).

It's strange because it appeared on several of these little islands that the beaches had historically been further away from the present shoreline location, or that the trees used to be situated on higher ground historically. Yet, by contrast, in other areas that we passed, there were forests of sabal palmettos dying because of rising sea levels. This seems contradictory to me because these are two opposite conditions --- the first, where sea levels appear to be lower than they used to be (or simply erosion has occurred), and the latter, where sea levels have risen, causing palms that formerly lived on land to be immersed in water up to their "ankles", so to speak.

[Sandy Loam]

....and, as for the theory that those rootballs were only tolerating fresh water, I must dispel that myth. It was definitely salt water. I couldn't help but notice when my water bottle fell out of the kayak right in the vicinity of that island. The top of the bottle tasted extremely salty until I finally got it wiped off enough.

Sabal Palmetto seems to be quite saltwater tolerant.

[Walter John]

Cool find.

[Sandy Loam]

Here are more photos of sabal palmetto trees in Florida with their rootballs half-exposed due to beach erosion and are thriving (photos: up close and from a distance). I believe these photos were taken in March this year.

Sabal Palmetto seem to be able to tolerate a great deal of salt water, although there are some patches of them on islands along the Florida coastline where they have become 100% immersed in salt water permanently and appear to be dying as a result.

[foxtail]

Ready to transplant.

Edited July 17, 2015 by foxtail

[Josh-O]

that's one hardy adaptable palm for sure.

great pic's

[Yunder Wækraus]

Great photos

[Brad Mondel]

It should be no surprise how salt tolerant Sabal Palmetto is. Their seeds are dispersed not only by animals but also by the ocean currents. They have spread all the way up the east coast to North Carolina by the currents. They evolved this way, to disperse and spread efficiently.

[Sandy Loam]

I spontaneously snapped this photo of a wild sabal palm forest on Florida today.  There are hundreds of these forests in Florida.  Sorry for the photo quality and, um, the fact that the forest is along the side of an ugly highway!

This photo is a good example of how tall these Sabal Palmettos can become in their natural habitat.  Click to enlarge the photo, as desired.

 

 

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

4 hours ago, Sandy Loam said:

I spontaneously snapped this photo of a wild sabal palm forest on Florida today.  There are hundreds of these forests in Florida.  Sorry for the photo quality and, um, the fact that the forest is along the side of an ugly highway!

This photo is a good example of how tall these Sabal Palmettos can become in their natural habitat.  Click to enlarge the photo, as desired.

 

 

I have seen these Sabals as tall as about 80 - 90ft. in their native habitat near Ocala  They were the tallest Florida Sabals, or any Sabal for that matter that I have ever seen.

[Dave-Vero]

The Gulf Hammock coast from Cedar Key northward should have been better protected.  It's a magnificent area, but even back in the 1970s, large areas of forest were being destroyed and turned to pine plantation, while people with their four wheel drives were messing up the bits of sandy beach.  Most of the coast lacks beaches, with salt/brackish marshes facing the open Gulf.  Islands can have odd mixtures of basswoods/linden (Tilia) with more or less tropical Psychotria bushes.