Sabal ID in France

[Ouaitetown]

Hi Everybody,

I am new to this forum, so to introduce myself, I built my house in the north west of France last year and I am now filling my garden with palms and other exotics.

Last December I purchased that unidentified Sabal in a shop dedicated to sell inventory from shut down plant retailers. It supposedly came from Spain.

I hope that the big Sabal knowers community from palmtalk will help me identifying my big baby!!

Here it is right after I received it :

Here it is now after a winter with almost no freeze but 3 big wind storms :

Sabal x par ouaitetown, sur Flickr

Thanks for your help

[Alicehunter2000]

Welcome to the forum. Is there any way to get a closeup of a intact leaf? To me it doesn't look like S. palmetto. ....but I defer to others who Id Sabal much better than I. It is a nice specimen whatever it is. It will love going into the ground.

[doranakandawatta]

Bonjour Benjamin, welcome , bienvenue on Palmtalk!

I am not so good with sub-tropical palms but I think it might be Sabal palmetto since I believe spanish nurseries don't grow rarest species.

But une question:

Will you plant it in the ground? I think your Sabal may enjoy having his roots protected from the cold, or is it always mild in Vannes ?

[Xerarch]

Come on where are our Sabal experts?

[Ouaitetown]

Hi everybody

Merci pour votre accueil!

It is night here and very rainy, I'll try to post photos tomorrow.

The lowest temperature that winter was -3C and in average we have -5C

Once every ten year we go down to -7

I think the all time record is -12C but it happened once in a century

I will plant it in the ground as close as possible from my house. In the neighborhood we have Phoenix Canariensis with 1m trunk

Thanks for your help!

Ouaitetown

[Kailua_Krish]

Most Sabal species are fine with -12C here in the states! I wouldn't plant it too close to the house if it is a hardy species as they can be quite messy with falling fronds and seeds

[Ouaitetown]

Hi, I hope it will do fine with my climate.

Except the wind that finally damaged all the leaves, if it recovers well when I will put it in the ground this spring, it may enjoy a long life.

Here is the less damaged leave after tonight last wind storm… It is exposed to west winds (I am 10km from the Atlantic Ocean and 3km from an inner sea called Morbihan Gulf).

Sabal x par ouaitetown, sur Flickr

If it is not helping a lot to ID, a new life is about to open, we will have to wait 1 or 2 month to get a nice new leave.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

It's really not possible to ID a wrapped sabal. But if I look at the trunk I'd guess sabal dominguensis. Whatever it is it's a nice palm. Nice find, don't plant too close to your house, these get very large. Ce palmier va devenir tres grand, comme un phoenix Canariensis.

[palm tree man]

Beautiful sabal, you are going to love it. I agree with Axel give that fella a little room to grow.

[Ouaitetown]

I will sure love it!

Here is a pic of it in the ground now, just have to wait for it to grow to show nice new palms

Sabal x par ouaitetown, sur Flickr

[Alicehunter2000]

Could you show us something for scale....maybe a shovel or shoe. Sabal species are notorious for being hard to Id. They also hold up very well to wind as their native habitat normally experiences hurricanes.

[Brad Mondel]

Looks like Sabal Domingensis.

[sarasota alex]

I'll register a guess - Sabal mexicana

[Sabal Steve]

Just a guess from me as well, but I think that it's fair to exclude the monster, thick trunked Sabals. Of course there many factors, including environmental ones, but given it's current profile I would suspect that it would be one of the following:

S. blackburnia, mexicana, palmetto, pumos, rosei.

Also, the crown doesn't look like S. bermudana, yapa, or mauritiformis, and it clearly isn't any of the S. minor varities, etonia, miamiensis, or S. "louisiana". Not S. uresana.

[Ouaitetown]

Hi everybody

Here is a quick update on my still unidentified Sabal. I guess it will remain the same until it eventually decides to flower 

Sans titre by ouaitetown, sur Flickr

Are those "paper like" things at the armpit of the leaves typical of any species of Sabal

Sans titre by ouaitetown, sur Flickr

The trunk kept growing this year, don't know when it will reach its final diameter.

Sans titre by ouaitetown, sur Flickr

Thanks for your help. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Benjamin

[dalmatiansoap]

Nice plant! Its going to be beautiful specimen in next seasons.

[redbeard917]

Those ligules mean it has to be one of the large Caribbean Sabals, right?

If so, expect the trunk to continue to grow wider.

Your garden looks very nice.

[redbeard917]

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Sabal_domingensis

 

Check out the paper-like ligules on the Sabal domingensis. I bet that is your palm.