Sabal ‘DeFuniak’ is a mystery palm, first spotted years ago, in the town of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, as an oddity and potential hybrid. Palm experts agree that the trunk looks like Sabal bermudana, while the foliage more closely resembles Sabal minor var. louisiana. Our first Sabal ‘DeFuniak’ plants are currently flowering this year at 5 years old in the ground (6 years old from seed). The flowers sure look like there is Sabal minor blood involved, but the flower stalks are much shorter than either Sabal minor and especially Sabal minor var. louisiana, which for us, has very tall flower spikes.
The growth rate is much faster than other purported Sabal minor x palmetto hybrids, so perhaps, another tall, trunking species like Sabal bermudana is involved. Our plants have been through two winters below 15F, 11F, and 14F, with no damage on mature foliage, although the newly developing leaf gets singed because it doesn’t know to shut down early enough in fall. While the growth rate still can’t compete with a windmill palm, this may wind up being one of the faster growing trunked sabals for Zone 7b/8a and south. We sure love a botanical mystery.
We have had a Sabal DeFuniak seedling in the ground since late February 2026 in arguably the warmest heat island influenced neighborhood for 100 miles in any direction (Capitol Hill/NoMa – Washington, D.C.) in the 6 years we’ve lived in our current home, the lowest temperature we’ve experienced has been 17.4 F on 2 occasions, with January being our coldest average month at 52/36 hi/lo, and about 60-70 days over 90 F from March to October. While we’ve had fast growth with Sabal Minor, and what feels like light speed growth with our Trachy f (4 years old and 7 ft tall with about 7 ft canopy, and absolutely zero winter setbacks) the Sabal Defuniak seems to be a significantly slower grower. We did see some noticeably faster output during the hottest and most humid stretch of summer, it’s also not in what I’d consider to be the best spot in our small yard that it could be, as it’s boxed out a bit by a prolific fig tree, a couple of rose trees, and an incredibly annoying Passiflora Incarnata vine that engulfs our holly and rose trees. We’ve had success with Lady Palm, Pindo Palm, and Saw Palmetto as well, so I’m hoping next year it will pick up with its growth habit a bit.