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Trunking Sabals (palmetto, mexicana)range gap, Absence from TX, LA, AL


monkeyranch

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The native range of trunking sabals has a gap from the western FL panhandle, where S. palmetto runs out , through AL, LA, and 80% of the Texas coast, to the Rio Grande Valley, where S. mexicana begins. S. palmetto does make it up the Atlantic to Cape Fear, NC assisted by the Appalachians and the Gulf Stream, clinging to the coast.

The last Ice Age certainly pushed the trunking sabals far south in range. How much farther south was their extreme limit during ice age times and what has been their rate of advancement north and west since global temperatures have rebounded?

Is this gap in range solely the result of the last Ice Age and the trunkers are now spreading slow and steady to repopulate the entire Gulf Arc?

Or are the worst Arctic outbreaks that drop down the plains from Canada every 100-500 years or so, able to funnel into and linger in the flatlands of Texas and Louisiana long enough to wipe out the trunking palmettos and permanently limit their spread in that region? The current populations persisted through the Little Ice Age from 1350-1850 but it must have affected their range? Any historical accounts of Exploration Era cold events and palmetto die off?

Does this seem correct and what other factors might have limited the trunking sabals spread since the last ice age?

How about bird migration routes? Are the corridors primarily north-south with little transit east-west? So, resident Gulf birds don't have large enough movement along the coast to shuffle the trunking palmettos towards Texas? Birds migrating through the Texas corridor should spread them north. How far a distance can a bird carry a seed before it defecates them? Are the King Ranch or other areas too dry or have soils blocking the establishment of trees?

Are there soil regions that block the spread of the trunkers?

How do the semi-trunking S. minor 'Louisiana' fit into this puzzle?

How long ago was the s. x'Brazoria' hybrid event, when s. palmetto and s. minor cohabited the area? Was this before the last Ice Age?

How much of s. mexicana's northern populations have been cleared for agriculture? Wouldn't there be some evidence or would old, buried trunks have had enough time in a warm, humid climate to decompose and disappear? It seems hardy enough to easily survive to Galveston even in an Ice Age.

Now humans seem to be assisting their largest leaps north and west, planting them ornamentally with the help of warming weather patterns. Will trunking palmettos soon range completely around the Gulf again? Any accounts of how successfully the two species are naturalizing in Texas and Louisiana habitats from domesticated trees?

palmetto.jpg

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The native range of trunking sabals has a gap from the western FL panhandle, where S. palmetto runs out , through AL, LA, and 80% of the Texas coast, to the Rio Grande Valley, where S. mexicana begins. S. palmetto does make it up the Atlantic to Cape Fear, NC assisted by the Appalachians and the Gulf Stream, clinging to the coast.

The last Ice Age certainly pushed the trunking sabals far south in range. How much farther south was their extreme limit during ice age times and what has been their rate of advancement north and west since global temperatures have rebounded?

Is this gap in range solely the result of the last Ice Age and the trunkers are now spreading slow and steady to repopulate the entire Gulf Arc?

Or are the worst Arctic outbreaks that drop down the plains from Canada every 100-500 years or so, able to funnel into and linger in the flatlands of Texas and Louisiana long enough to wipe out the trunking palmettos and permanently limit their spread in that region? The current populations persisted through the Little Ice Age from 1350-1850 but it must have affected their range? Any historical accounts of Exploration Era cold events and palmetto die off?

Does this seem correct and what other factors might have limited the trunking sabals spread since the last ice age?

How about bird migration routes? Are the corridors primarily north-south with little transit east-west? So, resident Gulf birds don't have large enough movement along the coast to shuffle the trunking palmettos towards Texas? Birds migrating through the Texas corridor should spread them north. How far a distance can a bird carry a seed before it defecates them? Are the King Ranch or other areas too dry or have soils blocking the establishment of trees?

Are there soil regions that block the spread of the trunkers?

How do the semi-trunking S. minor 'Louisiana' fit into this puzzle?

How long ago was the s. x'Brazoria' hybrid event, when s. palmetto and s. minor cohabited the area? Was this before the last Ice Age?

How much of s. mexicana's northern populations have been cleared for agriculture? Wouldn't there be some evidence or would old, buried trunks have had enough time in a warm, humid climate to decompose and disappear? It seems hardy enough to easily survive to Galveston even in an Ice Age.

Now humans seem to be assisting their largest leaps north and west, planting them ornamentally with the help of warming weather patterns. Will trunking palmettos soon range completely around the Gulf again? Any accounts of how successfully the two species are naturalizing in Texas and Louisiana habitats from domesticated trees?

palmetto.jpg

Lots of interesting questions monkeyranch. Why have the Sabal palmetto not pushed farther west than the florida panhandle? The Florida panhandle and the gulf coast of Mississippi must have similar soils and climates. Seed migration of the S.P. would probably be easier from south to north up the east coast than westerly migration toward Texas. I see them naturalizing in Texas though and there are escaped specimans in S.W. La. near Lake Charles. In S.E. Houston at Ellington AFB there are landscaped S.P. there that are spreading into nearby uncultivated areas along highway 3. The Brazoria county Sabals near Houston reportably have palmetto and minor DNA and yet there is no physical evidence that S. palmettos were native to that area or even Texas. I think that the older examples of the Brazoria palms are at least 100- 150 years old. The present natural range in north and west Florida of S. palmetto could be marking their return to that area from earlier cold spells.

There are historical reports of trunked palms in central Texas up to San Antonio from the early exporers. 19th Century botanical greats Ferdinand Lindheimer and George Engelmann reported palms with trunks of 20 to 40 feet along rivers draining into the central coast. Jean-Baptiste Talon from the late 1600s was asked to describe the Guadalupe River, he replied that it has "a great number of palm trees…along the banks and in the surrounding area."

Some believe that these palms were harvested for constuction. I believe that they may have also been frozen back to the Rio Grande. Regardless of how they disappeared they are now returning. I see them coming up in Austin in areas that recieve no supplemental irrigation and only 30 inches of rain per year. As recently as 1949 San Antonio had a low of zero degrees. There was a monster cold spell that froze the Mississippi river all the way to New Orleans in 1784.

Ed in Houston

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Some non-palm species, like indigo snakes, genus Drymarchon, have similar biogeography, and a FL species and a south TX species. I suspect infrequent cold events (or series thereof) periodically limit the populations to south FL and Mexico, from where they penetrate north during warmer stretches.

Andrei W. Konradi, Burlingame, California.  Vicarious appreciator of palms in other people's gardens and in habitat

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Interesting topic monkeyranch,

Id bet numerous factors are involved in distribution or lack there of in those regions including early settlers cutting trees and overall climate patterns at that time, or, before hand. Hypothetically, the same questions could be made concerning numerous species of Palms and/or plant species which once occupied various places in the southern US/ Mex. Borderlands either before the last Ice Age, or around the time the Human settlements moved in/expanded.

Recall some talk in a recent thread concerning potential past distribution of Sabal uresana in Southern Arizona.

From another angle, some authorities also suggest Naked Coral Tree ( Erythrina coralloides) once ranged into that region of the Southwest. Presently, id gather you'd have to travel 50 miles or so south to encounter either species in native habitat. Also, it is thought that Jaguars ranged as far west as coastal southern CA, and as far north as Georgia?.. if I remember reading the article correctly.

Here in Florida, the Florida Scrub Jay stands as one of a few reminders of a drier time when Oaks and a Chaparral-like plant community is thought to have ringed the Gulf of Mexico. Find it interesting that it is directly related to the same bird I grew up feeding peanuts to back in the Bay Area.

-Nathan

Edited by Silas_Sancona
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Palms were also harvested for their hearts ("palm cabbage"), so man may have played a role in their disappearance. I suspect this is why Sabal minors in Louisiana grow trunks, but few ancient trunking specimens are encountered.

  • Upvote 1

Woodville, FL

zone 8b

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  • 2 years later...
On ‎1‎/‎23‎/‎2015‎ ‎11‎:‎20‎:‎31‎, monkeyranch said:

The native range of trunking sabals has a gap from the western FL panhandle, where S. palmetto runs out , through AL, LA, and 80% of the Texas coast, to the Rio Grande Valley, where S. mexicana begins. S. palmetto does make it up the Atlantic to Cape Fear, NC assisted by the Appalachians and the Gulf Stream, clinging to the coast.

 

The last Ice Age certainly pushed the trunking sabals far south in range. How much farther south was their extreme limit during ice age times and what has been their rate of advancement north and west since global temperatures have rebounded?

 

Is this gap in range solely the result of the last Ice Age and the trunkers are now spreading slow and steady to repopulate the entire Gulf Arc?

 

Or are the worst Arctic outbreaks that drop down the plains from Canada every 100-500 years or so, able to funnel into and linger in the flatlands of Texas and Louisiana long enough to wipe out the trunking palmettos and permanently limit their spread in that region? The current populations persisted through the Little Ice Age from 1350-1850 but it must have affected their range? Any historical accounts of Exploration Era cold events and palmetto die off?

 

Does this seem correct and what other factors might have limited the trunking sabals spread since the last ice age?

 

How about bird migration routes? Are the corridors primarily north-south with little transit east-west? So, resident Gulf birds don't have large enough movement along the coast to shuffle the trunking palmettos towards Texas? Birds migrating through the Texas corridor should spread them north. How far a distance can a bird carry a seed before it defecates them? Are the King Ranch or other areas too dry or have soils blocking the establishment of trees?

 

Are there soil regions that block the spread of the trunkers?

 

How do the semi-trunking S. minor 'Louisiana' fit into this puzzle?

 

How long ago was the s. x'Brazoria' hybrid event, when s. palmetto and s. minor cohabited the area? Was this before the last Ice Age?

 

How much of s. mexicana's northern populations have been cleared for agriculture? Wouldn't there be some evidence or would old, buried trunks have had enough time in a warm, humid climate to decompose and disappear? It seems hardy enough to easily survive to Galveston even in an Ice Age.

 

Now humans seem to be assisting their largest leaps north and west, planting them ornamentally with the help of warming weather patterns. Will trunking palmettos soon range completely around the Gulf again? Any accounts of how successfully the two species are naturalizing in Texas and Louisiana habitats from domesticated trees?

 

palmetto.jpg

Here is a link to a picture of naturally occurring Sabal mexicana approximately 100 miles southwest of Houston. Apparently a few have survived and are slowly increasing in numbers.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jtwilliams10/8421545905/in/photostream/

On a side note, a well known nursery is selling a reported trunked S. minor that hails from a population in Central Texas near the ghost town of Welfare. The advertisement states they are trunked and as much as 8 feet tall.  Not sure if this means to the top of the trunk or tallest frond.  Does anyone have any additional information or pixs of this population?  I'm not finding much more than what is on the nursery's website.

Clay

South Padre Island, Zone 10b until the next vortex.

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