PlantFiles: Saw Palmetto, Scrub Palmetto, Silver Saw Palmetto
Serenoa repens

I ahve not grown this plant. Saw Palmetto, Scrub Palmetto, Silver Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens) is native to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missippi, South Carolina and Texas (Cameron County).

Palmetto "islands" were already established decades ago when we first bought our acre. Knew about the attractiveness to snakes, etc., but wanted to keep them as they are natural to Florida landscapes. Plus, they were free! We cleaned them up to about 4-7 fronds per stalk. The only snake I ever saw in ours was a pink worm snake, and only 1 rat after a hurricane. They are very nice looking if you take the time to clean them up. Caution is reminded here not only because of possible snakes in your palmettos, but most all palmettos have sharp barbs along the frond stems and they will cut you up, not just your arms but wear goggles if you tend to be hurried. They add a nice natural touch of tropical to your yard if you keep them in check once a year. Too many people just bulldoze them away, it's such a shame to do that. Plus the blossoms fragrance is terrific!

From a California perspective, this is a slow palm. It is pretty easy in California as it is most places it can survive, but it seems 10x slower here than in the rest of the country. We don't have the heat here (except in our deserts) this palm needs to be happy. It can 15-20 years to get a decent specimen even worth having in the garden. For that reason you will hardly ever see one in California except at Botanical gardens or a few crazy palm collectors (like me). They are not a good landscape palm here for that reason. My own palm is about 7 years old and still only about 8" tall though starting to finally pick up a bit. Huntington gardens has some old, large specimens (though large for California standards) but they have been there for many decades.

Abundant throughout Florida, where it is found in drier areas. Here in Tallahassee the green form is the one found in the wild but the silver form is more popular for the landscape. Very tough, surviving forest fires, but reputedly hard to transplant.

The silver variety is hardier than the green variety, and the silver variety is a slow grower, but survives in Seattle, although it can take 12 years to get a decent sized plant.

S. repens is a wonderful native plant in Florida, but it is not ENDEMIC according to USF's Dr. Richard Wunderlin in GUIDE TO THE VASCULAR PLANTS OF FLORIDA.

After the wildfires burned through the areas in central Florida a few years back, the Palmettos came back almost immediately, bright green among the blackened pine trunks.

Saw Palmetto is a very drought-tolerant plant, growing in the dry flatwoods, dunes, scrub and low-lying areas on the coastal plain from South Carolina to Florida and Louisiana. It is very abundant in parks in my area, growing naturally in pinelands as well as along the coast on barrier islands. It is an excellent plant providing food and shelter for wildlife, especially native wildlife such as the Eastern Spotted Skunk, skinks, lizards, snakes, birds, raccoons and deer as well as others. It is often found with the Cabbage or Sabal Palmetto, Florida's state tree, in the hammocks and pinelands. However, it is very slow-growing and it's stalk has sharp thorns, so be careful when handling the fronds or the plant itself (trunk has sharp thorns and stalks, too). Adapts to little water in the landscape, so it is suitable for xeriscaping. Grows as a shrub and sometimes up to 10 feet tall! A great plant if you want a wildlife or ease-of-care, low-water garden.

I am fortunate to have a garden with several large native Serenoa repens as background plants, from clumps that were not cleared away when the area was developed. They are really tough palms, tolerant of a wide variety of conditions. Since the previous poster mentioned disadvantages, I can add mine .... the undersides of the leaves are favored places for paper wasps to make nests. I knock the leaves with a stick to see if any fly out before I trim off the older leaves.

The only drawback to this plant is that rattlesnakes love to get in them because rats and mice like to hide in them. If you live in a dry part of Florida you should take this into consideration.

This plant is very difficult to transplant/relocate and also very difficult to kill once established. Make sure you plant it where you want it. Be careful of the "toothed" leaf stalks that give the plant it's common name Saw palmetto--they are very sharp. This is a slow grower. The seeds are gathered for use as an herbal remedy and are also very attractive for wildlife. The honey produced by the plant is highly prized.

This plant is also quite salt tolerant and suitable for beachside plantings. It will thrive in almost any subtropical environment.

Endemic to peninsular Florida and the coastal plains from southeastern Louisiana to southern South Carolina the Saw-palmetto helps provide primary habitat for the wildlife of southern Florida's palmetto prairies. Distinctive species include the crested caracara, the Florida burrowing owl, and the Florida sandhill crane. It also provides essential habitat for sand skinks, the Florida mouse, and a variety of birds, including the Florida scrub jay--a threatened subspecies. Black bears feed on saw-palmetto fruit and the young shoots which sprout after winter fires in the Florida flatwoods. White-tailed deer also eat saw-palmetto fruit, especially during dry years.