Sabal palmetto "forest"

[Eric in Orlando]

If you head north from Orlando on I-4, you cross the St. John's River at Sanford. After you cross over there is wet, hammock areas dominated by Sabal palmetto. Makes a really impressive stand.

[Jeff in St Pete]

VERY nice! Makes me homesick for FL...

[gsn]

The entire St. Johns river plain looks very simular to that pic, in Brevard,Seminole, Volusia,and Orange counties, definately Sabal country!

An especially nice stand of very old sabals can be viewed going up the Econ River off the St. Johns River at Highway 46. I don't have any pics, but it is beautiful going up the Econ from there. Another great way to view this tributary is by canoe,starting at Snow Hill Road,and coming out ,where the the Econ emptys into the St. Johns, at 46!

For those who don't like Sabals, Florida is not the place to live!

Edited December 29, 2008 by gsn

[Carlo Morici]

Beautiful!

Florida lacks hills, but it has hills of palms!

[PalmGuyWC]

Beautiful photos Eric. It just goes to show that a forest of one species can be very impressive.

Dick

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Cool pics Eric... Those Sabals are awesome. I remember hunting for pygmy rattlesnakes in those palm hammocks during my years in central Florida. The sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear as the sunset around me still haunts me!

[PalmGuyWC]

William,

Strange that you mentioned pigmy rattle snakes in the hammoks. Years ago a friend and I were looking for orchids and bromeliads in an Everglades hammok on the west side of the glades. There was a sudden movement just in front of me, and it was the biggest Cotton Mouth I've ever seen. He heard me coming and coiled, and one more step and I would have been on top of him. I think I jumped 6 feet backwards and got the heck out of there. There were cigar orchids growing on almost every tree in that hammok, and unusual bromeliads. I sure miss the old days tromping around in the various hammoks and Key Largo. I'm sure it's changed now.

Dick

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I saw some kind of snake while on my hike in The Everglades this weekend (we were loud and scared any creature off that was relatively nearby... Good thing I'm a plant hunter!)... Not to sure, but I think it was Crotalus adamanteus or The Eastern Diamondback judging by the lousy photo I was managed to take as the snake slithered off... Any positive ID's? (sorry to get a bit off topic Eric!)

[PalmGuyWC]

I'm from S. Georgia where diamond backs are common. That's definately a diamond back and looks like a big one.

The largest diamond back ever captured was found only a half mile from where I lived in S. Georgia. My father showed me the tracks the snake made as he crawled across the sandy road. I think the snake was about 7 feet long, and he later appeared on the Marlin Perkens show on TV.

Sorry Eric, didn't mean to turn your thread into a snake story.

Dick

[Eric in Orlando]

I don't mind, snakes are an interesting topic.

One day I was going to the beach at New Smyrna Beach and had got off I-4 on SR 44. That stretch of road has lots of pine forest and as I came around a curve a huge snake had just crossed the road into the grass. I slowed down and it was a rattler laying there, it was easily 6ft long. He stopped and looked at me and quickly slithered into the palmettos. That is the biggest I have ever seen.

We have a small python or boa constrictor living underneath the wooden dock overlook here at Leu Gardens. Several people have spotted it lately, its small maybe 2-3ft long. I keep looking for it but haven't seen it yet. Hope it doesn't mean they are breeding up here now.

[Brad-Tampa]

If you love Florida you got to love Sabal palmetto- The State Tree. I have camped at Mozel Hammock in Highlands County. This is a goggle earth image of the hammock with a mile marked out next to it. A followup post will show a second aerial with a detail. Inside the Hammock you can almost walk hand to hand to Sabal trunks. I'm sure there are many other sites like this but I found it very impressive. Brad

[Brad-Tampa]

[Tala]

Eric unless somebody flushed a pet thats exactly what it means. If it outmaneuvers the gators in there you could advertise a Reptile Wars exhibit.

I used to take care of a couple of houses on the north end of Lake Monroe up there. These were basically wood cabins built no more than 20 or 30 yds from the water's edge. If it rained more than a few inches you couldn't drive back to them. So they set up a community boat dock to ferry the residents around. Natural Fl. at its best!

[Eric in Orlando]

Eric unless somebody flushed a pet thats exactly what it means. If it outmaneuvers the gators in there you could advertise a Reptile Wars exhibit.

I used to take care of a couple of houses on the north end of Lake Monroe up there. These were basically wood cabins built no more than 20 or 30 yds from the water's edge. If it rained more than a few inches you couldn't drive back to them. So they set up a community boat dock to ferry the residents around. Natural Fl. at its best!

Its a prehistoric lake, down there there are a few alligators, cottonmouths, big Florida Snapping Turtles, huge softshell turtles and big gar. I don't know how anyone swims in lakes around here, too many things that can nip and bite.

[fastfeat]

If you head north from Orlando on I-4, you cross the St. John's River at Sanford. After you cross over there is wet, hammock areas dominated by Sabal palmetto. Makes a really impressive stand.

Eric,

are these on the north side of 17-92 at I-4? Very impressive!

[Eric in Orlando]

yes, If you are heading north on I-4 (east according to the signs since I-4 runs NE/SW), they are just over the bridge after you cross over the river, on the Volusia Co. side.

[ghar41]

I saw some kind of snake while on my hike in The Everglades this weekend (we were loud and scared any creature off that was relatively nearby... Good thing I'm a plant hunter!)... Not to sure, but I think it was Crotalus adamanteus or The Eastern Diamondback judging by the lousy photo I was managed to take as the snake slithered off... Any positive ID's? (sorry to get a bit off topic Eric!)

I agree...it's an Eastern Diamondback, the big daddy of the southeast!

[Davidl]

Rattle snakes are all over Florida and can get very large. Its those cotton mouths that you have to watch out for.

[SubTropicRay]

Old Myakka River State Park has some fantastic Sabal hammocks. If you haven't been, it's worth the trip.

[TikiRick]

Sabals, often veiwed as weeds by those of us in Florida, are beautiful trees. Especially when they are bent from reaching for the sun, hurricanes, or interesting growth patterns.

My preference is for the smooth trunks, but the booted ones are cool too!

[Kris]

Dear Eric

Lovely stills and fentastic location...

thanks & love,

Kris

[Jason in Orlando]

Sabal palmetto are directly responsible for my love of all things palm. Period. My father used to take my brother and I to Myrtle Beach, SC ever summer, and I never got tired of looking at them. There are some nice hammocks along S.R. 528, the "Bee Line or Beach Line" near the St. John's River. Check out my pictures on the PACSOA website for some unusual ones up in the Ocala National Forest that have the boots in vertical ranks. Haven't seen this anywhere else.

Jason

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

I too love Sabal palmetto. I've seen them planted well north of their range covered in snow and ice; seen them on fire beside I-95; seen them nearly unscathed after hurricanes that converted vigorous live oaks into scrapwood; seen them recover fully after being dug out of the ground, placed on a flatbed and drive 400 miles north of where they germinated. They simply must be one of the toughest palms on planet Earth! If that *%#! "TX Phoenix Palm Decline" whacks our native population, it'll be terrific loss to our ecosystem and our State's natural beauty. OK, I'm over that for now. I feel better! Plant more Sabals!

[sonoranfans]

that is a beautiful forrest Eric! I dont care how common they are, they are beautiful.

[Dave-Vero]

Sabal palmetto is also a somewhat fire-tolerant species. I would bet that most of the palmetto hammocks in the natural landscape have fire histories.

They provide nesting places for crested caracaras, lots of food (fruit and resident insects) for a variety of animals. I think there's a raccoon scat, entirely palm fruits, in the back yard. Native figs get started in Sabal crowns. The golden polypody fern, Phlebodium aureum, grows in crowns.

Palmettos and cypress ponds are probably the most typical features of the Florida landscape, along with the intervening pine flatwoods carpeted with saw palmetto.

[SubTropicRay]

All of the above supports getting rid of Texas Phoenix Palm Decline pronto!!

[gsn]

Florida would definately look a whole lot different, if the native Sabal population was wiped out,or severely decimated!

[Eric in Orlando]

That disease has the potential to overtake the number one killer of Sabal palmetto, man.

I can't tell you how many times I have seen beautiful specimens or stands of wild palms bulldozed into a heap and hauled off. I love it when a highway is expanded and specimens that were planted alongside and growing nicely are destroyed then a year or 2 later when construction is completed new specimens planted back. Why can't the old ones be saved and reused?

Its utterly asinine.

[ron@springhammock]

Especially noticable around here this time of year are all of the Sabals growing in the wet hammocks. The understory is completely covered by them and they're mostly just at the verge of trunking, so I believe this is a new phenomena for these forests. A century ago these forests were open pine flats and cypress swamps. Long logged out and without regular fires, they have been replaced with the current decidous forests, primarily of oaks and hickory. In a temperate climate this would be the climax, but I'm wondering if this is now in transition to becoming a forest of many Sabals, and this is actually the climax for this environment.

Viewed from above:

[Danfi97]

whoever said florida lacks hills has obviously never been to much of central florida it's mostly hills here with an abundance of palm trees and lakes