Texas Sabals, Little Giants

[Brian F. Austin]

Here are some Sabal Mexicanas(?) in Austin. I wanted to show how crazy long the petioles are. Much longer then the 35"-47" that wikipedia states, more like 144++" 

They seem to be most impressive at this size and perspective. I put the camera on a timer and added some fuzzy Doofus in the photos for scale.

These are all from the Laguna Gloria Sculpture Park where they are growing near oaks and cypress. I have many of these growing from seed along with S. Uresana and S. Causiarum too. - thanks Joseph! I can only imagine what those will look like size-wise in the future.

The sunny shot of the flowers is a week earlier than the shady one.

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by Brian F. Austin
werds

[Ben G.]

Great post Brian. Those are some great looking sabals. I have always liked S. mexicana more than S. palmetto because they are so much bigger...at least from what I've seen.

Having you in the photos definitely gives needed perspective. If you hadn't been in the shots, I don't think I would have been able to tell just how big they really are.

[Brian F. Austin]

4 minutes ago, Ben OK said:

Having you in the photos definitely gives needed perspective. If you hadn't been in the shots, I don't think I would have been able to tell just how big they really are.

Thanks Ben, I was also thinking of what a sabal palmetto would look like at this age/height.

[southpacific73]

Wow is all I can say... Those are some beautiful palms indeed. Sabals have always been one of my favourties. Thanks for the pics.

[alohas]

Impressive sabals, and great pics! I particularly like the first one. 

[PalmatierMeg]

Great habitat photos! Thanks.

[Brian F. Austin]

This is my S. Mexicana tree started from seeds back in november.

[Palmensammler]

Hi Brian,

nice looking seedling. You surely have to wait some time until it's as big as on your first pictures. I also have a few small seedlings of Sabal palmetto and Sabal minor grown from seeds I collected in 2015 during a trip along the east cost.

I too love to grow palms from seed as you can watch them growing. Unfortunately here in Germany most of them have to stay in pots.

Keep us updated.

Eckhard

[Palm crazy]

WOW those are some massive Sabals leaves & long petioles, thanks for sharing you pics. 

[GeorgiaPalms]

Great photos! Thanks for sharing. Sabals are my favorite kinds of palms and these photos make it clear why. 

[Umbrae]

I am wondering if the petioles are longer because they are in shade vs full sun

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

5 hours ago, Umbrae said:

I am wondering if the petioles are longer because they are in shade vs full sun

That was my first thought too.  I've seen many different palm species have much larger fronds / longer petioles when grown in part or full shade.  That said, those ones in the original posts are amazing to see!  They look so giant, like prehistoric sized!  A dinosaur roaming there between them would look right at home! 

[topwater]

On 6/5/2017, 9:29:14, Umbrae said:

I am wondering if the petioles are longer because they are in shade vs full sun

Agreed.  S. texanas have huge canopies before they trunk, once they grow into the sun they start to look more "normal".  You can see the difference in the third picture between the tall and short palms. One of my favorites, and knock out specimens. Thanks for posting. 

[Brian F. Austin]

22 hours ago, DCA_Palm_Fan said:

That was my first thought too.  I've seen many different palm species have much larger fronds / longer petioles when grown in part or full shade.  That said, those ones in the original posts are amazing to see!  They look so giant, like prehistoric sized!  A dinosaur roaming there between them would look right at home! 

A dinosaur would most definitely look appropriate in that first shot. The scale of those palms is something to really experience in person. 

They definitely grow in shady spots. I'll see if I can find some other sabals growing in sunnier spots. They do seem to have shorter petioles once they get some height. Here's some other shots of the fronds, some show a small yellow window around the hastula. I've read on palmtalk that the yellow window is also on bermudana and causiarum. Also I don't think I've seen one with a trunk as light as the one posted above^^. They all seem to be very dark here as you can see in the photos with the sculpture. I'm not sure if that has to do with environment or genes.

There's 2 photos showing some of the taller trees on the upper grounds. For scale, I think the "Looking Up" sculpture is 33.3 feet tall.

 

[eevans]

About 25 years ago, I gathered a bunch of seeds from the ground there in Mayfield Park, to see if I could sprout any of them. They ALL sprouted.

I planted one of those seedlings in my backyard a mile or two east of there, in the Rosedale section of Austin. It grew way faster than I expected.

 

[eevans]

...and a 2nd-floor perspective, with a better view of the crown. The yellow-y color is due to sunset lighting. They're actually the typical olive green they get when growing in full sun.

By the way, here is a thread I posted last year with pictures of some of the same palms, in winter: http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/48435-sabal-mexicana-naturalizing-in-austin. In a decade or so, Mayfield and Laguna Gloria might look a lot like the forest in the Audubon Sabal Palm Sanctuary in south Texas.

[Brian F. Austin]

That's awesome, I think I'm about 25 years behind you with my sabals. Your tree looks great, heavy with flowers too. It looks just like the healthy trees at Mayfield. I saw your photos from Mayfield and Laguna, some were the same trees!

[Brian F. Austin]

On 6/1/2017 at 1:08 PM, Brian F. Austin said:

This is my S. Mexicana tree started from seeds back in november.

Here’s that palm 8 years later. It’s the double on the right.

[JohnAndSancho]

These should have a foot of trunk by July. 

[Brian F. Austin]

Pretty disappointed today when I went to Laguna Gloria and saw that almost all of the palms had been chopped down. 

[N8ALLRIGHT]

That's a shame.

[csuehs]

50 minutes ago, Brian F. Austin said:

Pretty disappointed today when I went to Laguna Gloria and saw that almost all of the palms had been chopped down. 

Why would somebody do this?

[N8ALLRIGHT]

3 hours ago, Brian F. Austin said:

Pretty disappointed today when I went to Laguna Gloria and saw that almost all of the palms had been chopped down. 

In the first picture I can see the spear and it looks good. Could these trunks be taken home or where ever. Plunked in a pot with some decent soil,water and basically get some free hurricane cut palms? I'm not familiar with the harvest process for sabals, basically do you have to have a minimum of root mass? Like I said earlier, it's a shame but as they say "when life gives you lemons". ..

[Brian F. Austin]

3 hours ago, csuehs said:

Why would somebody do this?

I’m not really sure. The land is a sculpture park and has been on a tree management program for many years to remove invasive species.

Maybe the newest in charge decided they were invasive. I would like to know their reasoning behind the eradication. Removing the palms definitely took away the magical feeling of the grounds.

[N8ALLRIGHT]

4 hours ago, N8ALLRIGHT said:

In the first picture I can see the spear and it looks good. Could these trunks be taken home or where ever. Plunked in a pot with some decent soil,water and basically get some free hurricane cut palms? I'm not familiar with the harvest process for sabals, basically do you have to have a minimum of root mass? Like I said earlier, it's a shame but as they say "when life gives you lemons". ..

I did some surfing, what I read indicates that you have to have the buried portion ( root initiation zone) intact. So no 

Sucks 

[csuehs]

On 2/14/2026 at 10:44 PM, N8ALLRIGHT said:

I did some surfing, what I read indicates that you have to have the buried portion ( root initiation zone) intact. So no 

Sucks 

Maybe they could have sold them and had them removed intact.   This seems like a stupid loss of a species that is slow growing... not 'invasive' material at all.

[ZPalms]

That’s terrible, they made that place more interesting.