Last year, we wrote about the famous Sabal ‘Birmingham’ palm, but until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t visited the old specimens at Raleigh’s Jaycee park in well over a decade, so I thought it was time to check on their status. We don’t know an exact planting date, but best guesses are that they were planted between 1985-1989 by former City of Raleigh horticulturist, the late Noel Weston and his palm guru assistant, Alan Brunner.
The original 15′ tall plant, planted in a Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood around 1936, was originally acquired from a California nursery. After the owner died, the palm was moved from the private garden to the Birmingham Botanical Garden in May 1976, but died around 1982 (per B. McCartney). All plants that now exist were probably propagated and sold by Woodlanders Nursery in SC. Nursery co-owner Bob McCartney tells me that he gathered seed in1981/82, just before the Birmingham plant died. Woodlanders subsequently offered Sabal ‘Birmingham’ between fall 1983 and spring 1986, which is the source of the Jaycee Park plants. That makes these two Raleigh specimens around 40 years old, and as far as we know, these may be the oldest specimens still in existence. A specimen in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which would also be around the same age has not been heard from in years. NC’s palm guru, Gary Hollar of New Bern also acquired plants in 1986, which went in the ground in 1991, and are also huge specimens today.
We know that one parent is the native Sabal palmetto, and it’s theorized that because of its’ amazing hardiness, and slowness to develop a trunk that it probably also has some blood from the smaller native Sabal minor. One of the Jaycee Park specimens now has a 6′ tall trunk, and the other, pictured below, has a 10′ trunk. It’s certainly not a prolific producer of seed, but the park garden staff was glad to share.
The plants vary widely from seed. Our oldest 29 year old specimen has a 2′ trunk and a leaf canopy that’s 8′ wide, with leaf petioles ranging from 3-4′. Another 21 year old specimen, here, has almost no trunk, but the 6-8′ leaf petioles give it a leaf spread of almost 15′. The shorter leaf petioles show the influence of Sabal minor, while the longer petioles show more influence from Sabal palmetto. We’ll have a limited number Sabal ‘Birmingham’ available in February, with more to follow later. Add it to your “wishlist” from the product page and we’ll email you when it is back in stock.
The term ‘Sabal’ apparently entered the English lexicon in the early 1800s, but its etymology is unknown. A quick ‘google’ suggests that it may be perhaps a South American indigenous term, or perhaps from Arabic. As sabal palms are not native to the Middle East or Africa, I think that any suggestion that the term is from Arabic is misguided.
The genus Sabal was named in 1763, and it is assumed that the name was derived from the South American common name for the palm, although this has never been confirmed.
Thank you for that additional information. I wonder whether that language is still extant. Perhaps someday there’ll be an ethnographer/linguist who works in South & Central America who has a passionate interest in botany and will identify the language and people from whom the name came.