Sabal

Sabal palmetto

Sabal is a genus native to America Palm. There are different sizes, single stemmed fan palm trees. Some species are valued as ornamental plants. The genus alone forms the tribe Sabaleae.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are single stemmed fan palm trees. They are dwarfed to large, stemless or erect and unarmed. The plants are blooming several times and hermaphrodite. The trunk is bent often decumbent and down. It is covered with leaf bases, rough and indistinct curled, but can be smooth even with age.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

The leaves are short or significantly costapalmat. They are folded and remain induplicat ( Marzeszenz ) after the death of the plant. The leaf sheath has a striking column under the petiole, the margins of the leaf sheath are fibrous. The petiole is often very long. The adaxial Hastula is short and blunt, or more often long and pointed with sharp edge, the abaxial Hastula is sometimes visible as a flat back.

The leaf blade is bent flat or common. Along the central abaxial fold is divided to the middle or almost to the rib, more divisions are along the adaxial folds. This gives rise to linealische, approximately the same, single folded leaf segments that are short deep in two parts. The midrib of the abaxial segments is striking.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are between the sheets ( interfoliar ) and form lateral axes of the fourth order. The cover sheet is short, zweikielig and bilobed. The information presented to several bracts on the inflorescence stem are below Roehrig with prominent and narrow peak. The inflorescence axis is equal to or longer than the peduncle. The bracts of the inflorescence axis are similar to those on the stem, but are smaller towards the tip.

The bracts on the axes of second and third order are clearly marked, Roehrig and to the axis of the tip smaller. At most axes a cover sheet is available. The flower-bearing axes ( Rachillae ) are slim, their bracts are spirally arranged, in each sits a small side branch with a single bloom.

Flowers

The flowers of this species are hermaphroditic. They are symmetrical. The cup is slightly thickened, Roehrig and weak three-lobed at the base. In dry state, the nerves often occur out clearly. The crown is Roehrig in the lower part, the lobes are elliptical and easy to Bud imbricat. The six stamens have rather fleshy, flat stamens are fused at the bottom of a tube. Your free area is commended in shape and not bent at the tip inward. The anthers are dorsifix, narrowly elliptic and latrors. The three carpels are fully grown, the ovary is three-lobed and only slightly wider than long, dreigefurchte stylus. The scar is capitate, three-lobed and papillose. The ovules are basal and are anatrop.

The pollen is ellipsoidal and slightly asymmetrical. The germ is opening a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 33 to 50 micrometers.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit usually develops from only one carpel, sometimes of two or all three. It is globose to pyriform. At the base are the scars residues and abortive carpels. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp fleshy without fibers, the endocarp is thin and membranous.

The seed is not adherent to the endocarp, shiny brown and spherical. Raphe and basal scar sit. The endosperm is homogeneous.

Dissemination and locations

The distribution of the genus is restricted to the Western Hemisphere. The area extends from Colombia to the south to the north-east of Mexico and the southeastern United States and encompasses the entire Caribbean basin.

Some species, particularly the Zwergpalmettopalme ( Sabal minor), grow in marshy areas, others in sandy coastal areas or on open, dry sites.

System

The genus Sabal is placed in the subfamily within the family Arecaceae Coryphoideae alone forms the tribe Sabaleae. Their sister group is the tribe Cryosophileae.

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the following types are recognized:

• Sabal bermudana
• Sabal causiarum
• Sabal domingensis
• Sabal etonia
• Sabal gretherae
• Sabal maritima
• Sabal mauritiiformis
• Sabal mexicana
• Sabal miamensis
• Zwergpalmettopalme ( Sabal minor)
• Palmettopalme ( Sabal palmetto )
• Sabal pumos
• Sabal rosei
• Sabal uresana
• Sabal yapa

Use

In the past, palm trees were used to make broom and for thatching. Today many species are used as ornamental plants.

Documents

• John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, Carl E. Lewis: Genera palmarum. The Evolution and Classification of Palms. Second edition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2008, ISBN 978-1-84246-182-2, pp. 216-218.