Photo Kerry Dressler ©

The cabbage palm is Florida’s state tree, commonly seen along beaches, tidal flats and marshlands. It has a single un-branched trunk that is often latticed with old leaf bases. The leaf bases tend to slough off the tree as they get older and dry out, eventually giving the trunk a smooth appearance.

Cabbage palms produce a cluster of cream-colored flowers that protrude from the crown of the tree. The flowers turn into black fleshy fruits that are popular with birds and other wildlife.

Cabbage palms are very salt tolerant and adapt to most soil types. They are easy to transplant and are often dug from the wild and used in commercial landscaping or along highways. If you see a group of what looks like staked telephone poles planted along the highway, they are probably recently planted Cabbage palms.

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