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tallest Serenoa repens I have ever seen-15ft


Eric in Orlando

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I came across the tallest Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens) I have ever seen last Saturday. It is growing south of New Smyrna Beach in the Canaveral National Seashore. It is easy to find. Go down A1A into the CNS and then make a right onto Eldora Rd. (River Rd.). It is at the north end of parking lot 7.  This is the parking lot before the Eldora ghost town. The main stem is about 15-16ft tall and is growing into a Sand Live Oak (Quercus geminata).

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  • Upvote 12

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Nice find

Jeremy Breland
Norfolk, Va: USDA hardiness zone 8a, AHS heat zone 5, Sunset climate zone 31
Hot and humid summers; cool and moist winters.
Jacksonville FL: USDA hardiness zone 9a/9b, AHS heat zone 9, Sunset climate zone 28
Hot and humid summers; warm and moist winters punctuated by cold spells.

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Sweet!

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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On 5/24/2017, 9:29:26, Phoenikakias said:

Any guess what it has grown upright and tall?

 

I don't know why, some just grow straight up. I have seen them in shade and full sun with erect stems.

I have hiked a lot of places and seen some taller saw palmettos but this is the tallest.

  • Upvote 2

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2017‎ ‎9‎:‎29‎:‎26‎, Phoenikakias said:

Any guess what it has grown upright and tall?

It is being supported by that tree, if the tree was not there it would probably have grown along the ground.

PalmSavannaThumb.jpg

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2 hours ago, GMann said:

It is being supported by that tree, if the tree was not there it would probably have grown along the ground.

It might be now but that palm is way older than the tree.

  • Upvote 2

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Those Port Orange specimens are awesome!

 

 

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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I posted the below photos here at this forum 15 years ago --when I found these palms growing on a vacant lot on the east shore of Lake June, Lake Placid, Florida. 

I contacted the president of the Florida Native Plant society (South Ridge Chapter) for him to measure and certify as state champions. He told me he later that he did have them certified, and that they were co champions as, while they were the tallest in the state, others had bigger caliper trunks and crown diameter (Serenoa repens have three criterion for champions: overall height, crown diameter, and trunk caliper diameter).

The tallest of this clump measured 25 feet. Two others were about 24 feet. The man in the photo (for scale) is the late Norman Cook, who was the South Ridge Chapter president. 

I also contacted one of my local newspapers and they did a photo article on these Serenoa repens. I also had a photo article done in the Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society's quarterly publication The Palmateer. 

Unfortunately, every single one of these palms died! I watched them over a period of years die one by one. A new clump is now rising, and they appear to be about 8 feet high.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/wiki/Serenoa_repens_(2)

Saw%20palmetto%201_zpsspjnqll3.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%202_zpsssxvgewz.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%204_zpsbduolnxx.jpg

 

 

 

 

  • Upvote 7

Mad about palms

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Walt, those are awesome. They really resemble Acoelorrhaphe!

 

 

  • Upvote 1

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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A bit more like Robustas, looking from my perspective, lol. Beautiful plants 

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16 hours ago, Walt said:

I posted the below photos here at this forum 15 years ago --when I found these palms growing on a vacant lot on the east shore of Lake June, Lake Placid, Florida. 

I contacted the president of the Florida Native Plant society (South Ridge Chapter) for him to measure and certify as state champions. He told me he later that he did have them certified, and that they were co champions as, while they were the tallest in the state, others had bigger caliper trunks and crown diameter (Serenoa repens have three criterion for champions: overall height, crown diameter, and trunk caliper diameter).

The tallest of this clump measured 25 feet. Two others were about 24 feet. The man in the photo (for scale) is the late Norman Cook, who was the South Ridge Chapter president. 

I also contacted one of my local newspapers and they did a photo article on these Serenoa repens. I also had a photo article done in the Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society's quarterly publication The Palmateer. 

Unfortunately, every single one of these palms died! I watched them over a period of years die one by one. A new clump is now rising, and they appear to be about 8 feet high.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/wiki/Serenoa_repens_(2)

Saw%20palmetto%201_zpsspjnqll3.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%202_zpsssxvgewz.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%204_zpsbduolnxx.jpg

 

 

 

 

What do you think killed them? Such a loss :-(

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On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2017‎ ‎1‎:‎49‎:‎07‎, Eric in Orlando said:

It might be now but that palm is way older than the tree.

That is the only way it would work. Think about it. If the tree had grown first then the palm would have to grow "up" without any support to be supported in the first place. More likely that the palm was growing sideways, or at least not so vertically, and then the tree grew up under it, raising it up gradually.

 

  • Upvote 1

PalmSavannaThumb.jpg

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The oak doubtlessly grew much faster than the palm. It supported the Serenoa as it grew.

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On 5/26/2017, 2:29:10, Yunder Wækraus said:

What do you think killed them? Such a loss :-(

No idea why the died, but I had three tall ones die on my tall clump about the same time. I took the late Bob Riffle to see and photograph these palms, which he included two photos of them in two of his palm books. It makes me wonder if the two co state champions are still living.

  • Upvote 1

Mad about palms

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On 5/25/2017, 10:16:08, Walt said:

I posted the below photos here at this forum 15 years ago --when I found these palms growing on a vacant lot on the east shore of Lake June, Lake Placid, Florida. 

I contacted the president of the Florida Native Plant society (South Ridge Chapter) for him to measure and certify as state champions. He told me he later that he did have them certified, and that they were co champions as, while they were the tallest in the state, others had bigger caliper trunks and crown diameter (Serenoa repens have three criterion for champions: overall height, crown diameter, and trunk caliper diameter).

The tallest of this clump measured 25 feet. Two others were about 24 feet. The man in the photo (for scale) is the late Norman Cook, who was the South Ridge Chapter president. 

I also contacted one of my local newspapers and they did a photo article on these Serenoa repens. I also had a photo article done in the Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society's quarterly publication The Palmateer. 

Unfortunately, every single one of these palms died! I watched them over a period of years die one by one. A new clump is now rising, and they appear to be about 8 feet high.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/wiki/Serenoa_repens_(2)

Saw%20palmetto%201_zpsspjnqll3.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%202_zpsssxvgewz.jpg

Saw%20palmetto%204_zpsbduolnxx.jpg

 

 

 

 

I can't wait for the future generations to get tall! Only if they always got this tall, North Florida wouldn't only be shrub palms, it would be sweet with tall Saw palmetto in scrub land! Hilton Head Island, S.C. has some tall ones too, but not this tall. 

PalmTreeDude

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On 5/26/2017, 8:46:34, Eric in Orlando said:

Walt, those are awesome. They really resemble Acoelorrhaphe!

 

 

These palms (when living) were in the Lake June Pointe subdivision, about five miles from my place. This entire subdivision used to be one huge orange grove located on the east side of Lake June. The S. repens in question, along with other clumps (not as tall) were growing near the water's edge. One day 15 years ago I drove into that subdivision to look at vacant lots for sale (for my parents). As I was driving I just happened to see the clump. Like you, I first thought they might be Paurotis palms, but they weren't densely clumped enough. And from a distance I thought they looked similar to skinny S. palmetto. In any event, I was bound and determined to see for myself what they were. I parked my car and walked down to the clump, which was about 200 feet from the road. When I got down to the clump I immediately knew they were S. repens from their hacksaw blade like petioles. But what amazed me was that the trunks were almost totally clean and smooth and worn looking. No remnants of frond bases. That indicated to me that this was an old clump.

I guess because the clump was adjacent to the citrus trees, they had been left undisturbed by the grove workers for decades of time. I had a copy of the Florida Almanac, and in it I happened to look up in the appropriate section about Florida's championship tree program. That's when I found about the two (at that time) existing co champions and their height (which were 18 feet and 21 feet). I kind of figured the tallest in the Lake June clump were taller, so that's when I contacted Norman Cook of the Florida Native Plant Society. I found out about him in our local newspaper has he had recently had a silk oak here in Highlands County registered as a champion, and a newspaper article was done on it. I called him and told him about the S. repens clump, and he high tailed it down to my place from Avon Park, where he lived to see them. 

I just drove by today where this clump was. A new emerging clump appears to be about 10 feet high overall.

  • Upvote 1

Mad about palms

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5 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

I can't wait for the future generations to get tall! Only if they always got this tall, North Florida wouldn't only be shrub palms, it would be sweet with tall Saw palmetto in scrub land! Hilton Head Island, S.C. has some tall ones too, but not this tall. 

The University of Florida literature used to say that the reason Serenoa repens don't get extremely tall in the northern part of their range is due to the trunks getting frozen (and killed) in an extremely cold freeze (like maybe the Christmas of 1989 freeze). The shorter palms, and ones emerging from underground survive, thus the clump eventually grows taller.

As for the tall clump here on Lake June, these palms are virtually right on the water, maybe 20 feet away, and they are on the east side of the biggest part of the lake, plus the lake winds around on the north side, so north and N.W. winds are tempered by the relatively warmer water. So these palms get the thermal benefit of the water; hence, the palms would probably never see a critical cold temperature that would freeze the trunks.

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Mad about palms

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7 minutes ago, Walt said:

The University of Florida literature used to say that the reason Serenoa repens don't get extremely tall in the northern part of their range is due to the trunks getting frozen (and killed) in an extremely cold freeze (like maybe the Christmas of 1989 freeze). The shorter palms, and ones emerging from underground survive, thus the clump eventually grows taller.

As for the tall clump here on Lake June, these palms are virtually right on the water, maybe 20 feet away, and they are on the east side of the biggest part of the lake, plus the lake winds around on the north side, so north and N.W. winds are tempered by the relatively warmer water. So these palms get the thermal benefit of the water; hence, the palms would probably never see a critical cold temperature that would freeze the trunks.

And fires, I would assume. 

PalmTreeDude

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3 hours ago, PalmTreeDude said:

And fires, I would assume. 

Not sure how bad a fire (if the fire was short lived) would hurt saw palmetto. I say this as my property back up to Florida state preserve property. Some years ago the state did a control burn. After the burn you could clearly see all of the scorched semi vertical trunks of the saw palmettos. I think they all recovered.

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Mad about palms

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On 5/27/2017, 9:06:10, Walt said:

Not sure how bad a fire (if the fire was short lived) would hurt saw palmetto. I say this as my property back up to Florida state preserve property. Some years ago the state did a control burn. After the burn you could clearly see all of the scorched semi vertical trunks of the saw palmettos. I think they all recovered.

Oh yeah, I forgot Saw palmetto are adapted to wild fires in Florida. 

PalmTreeDude

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