On many native range maps for the Florida Royal Palm I keep seeing this tiny spec of area in North Florida where is says the palm is native, what is up with this? Is it true? (Picture below from http://www.pollenlibrary.com/Genus/Roystonea/) 

 

Well it is more like North Central Florida, and yes, I saw my typo in the title, my bad! I typed this on a phone.

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/11772-royals-native-to-lake-county-fl/#comment-201943

2 hours ago, Zeeth said:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/11772-royals-native-to-lake-county-fl/#comment-201943

Very interesting read! I'm not too sure what to believe about royals native range in Florida. It is difficult to imagine how their range could have possibly changed so much over the years... Then again, you also kind of have to question how they can have such a small range now when they seem to be capable of living much further north. Just logically speaking it would seem like their natural boundaries should be something like Melbourne on the east coast and St. Petersburg on the west.

Edited September 16, 20169 yr by RedRabbit

27 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

Very interesting read! I'm not too sure what to believe about royals native range in Florida. It is difficult to imagine how their range could have possibly changed so much over the years... Then again, you also kind of have to question how they can have such a small range now when they seem to be capable of living much further north. Just logically speaking it would seem like their natural boundaries should be something like Melbourne on the east coast and St. Petersburg on the west.

They are scattered everywhere. 

10 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

They are scattered everywhere. 

They only grow in natural habitat in a very small part of S. Florida.

11 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

They are scattered everywhere. 

Not natively. They're only natively present in the everglades, and even there you'll go miles and miles without finding any (though they're locally abundant where present). Most wild-growing royals in Florida came as seed from cultivated specimens. 

9 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

They only grow in natural habitat in a very small part of S. Florida.

4 minutes ago, Zeeth said:

Not natively. They're only natively present in the everglades, and even there you'll go miles and miles without finding any (though they're locally abundant where present). Most wild-growing royals in Florida came as seed from cultivated specimens. 

When I say scattered I mean birds or other animals carrying them around all over the place, in natural and un-natural habitats for them, most of the seeds, like Zeeth said, coming from cultivated specimens. I walked down the street about 50 feet from a large Royal Palm and looked where the sidewalk meets a small area of woods and the little things were popping up all over the place. I am assuming, in this case, they were either blown there or birds brought them. 

Edited September 16, 20169 yr by PalmTreeDude

No native naturally growing Royals have ever been recorded in Sarasota County