Syn.: Brahea minima (Nutt.) H. Wendl., Chamaerops acaulis Michx., Chamaerops arundinacea (Aiton) Sm., Chamaerops glabra Mill., Chamaerops louisiana Darby, Chamaerops sabaloides Baldwin ex Darl., Corypha minor Jacq., Corypha pumila Walter, Rhapis acaulis (Michx.) Walter ex Willd., Rhapis arundinacea Aiton, Sabal adiantina Raf., Sabal deeringiana Small, Sabal floribunda Katzenstein, Sabal glabra (Mill.) Sarg., Sabal louisiana (Darby) Bomhard, Sabal minima Nutt., Sabal pumila (Walter) Elliott
Family: Arecaceae Bercht. et J. Presl
Distribution: North American species from south east of US, from South Carolina to Oklahoma in the west and south to Florida and Texas. Also found in neighbouring state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico.
Ecology: Wet areas, swamps, floodplains, river banks but also in drier areas in west-central Texas, in elevations 10–600 m. Blooms in spring and summer.
Description: Small fan palm with usually subterranean trunk. Leaves 4–10, 0.3–1.5 m long and wide, costapalmate (fan-shaped with short mid rib), petiole smooth, little longer than leaf. Inflorescence erect, extending above the leaves, sparsely branched, branched with 2 orders of branching; flowers 3.5–5.2 mm. Fruits brownish black, round, up to 13 mm. Weight of the fruits causes the stem to arch downward, sometimes to ground.
Note: The plants with above the ground trunks in Louisiana were originally considered as separate species but recently are being treated as merely ecological form of the nominate species.
These images were taken in USA, Louisiana, Jean Lafitte National Park, Barataria Preserve (May 2014).
