The fronds of this heat loving palm reach an impressive height, expanding over 12 to 14 feet, even on relatively young specimens. The trunk is another story. Until reaching its full width of nearly 3 feet, the vertical growth creeps along at a slow to moderate 4-6 inches per year. In maturity, this tree finally takes off vertically and assumes a colossal, stately appearance.
The trunk retains its leaf bases for many years forming the Sabal’s trademark crisscross pattern. Denuded of leaf bases, the mature trunk is ringed but relatively smooth, with the physique of a Roman column, or more germane to Southern California, the pillar of a highway overpass. Upon this 3-foot-wide column a large crown of especially long leaf stalks, or petioles, protrude 7 to 9 feet from the stem supporting 4 to 5 foot, deeply folded, light green, costapalmate leaves, radically arched along the costa for the last one third of the leaf, with wide segments that tend to droop toward the tips. This palm’s powerful presence dominates any corporate power lawn – with a touch of tropical flare. It also makes an impressive statement planted in any residential yard – provided you have the space.
There are many species of Sabals, and they can be quite difficult to distinguish from one another, in part because they so easily hybridized through cross breading. At the Grove we have two varieties of the S. causiarum, one with an abundance for papery lingules wrapping the petioles, the other with scarcely any. This version has abundant papery lingules.
