Sabal etonia | |
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Sabal etonia at Archbold Biological Station, Florida, United States | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Arecales |
Family: | Arecaceae |
Genus: | Sabal |
Species: | S. etonia
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Binomial name | |
Sabal etonia | |
Synonyms[2] | |
Sabal etonia, commonly known as the scrub palmetto[3] is a species of palm. It is endemic to Florida in the United States, where it is found in Florida sand pine scrub communities.[2][4][5]
Sabal etonia is a fan palm with a solitary stem that is usually subterranean, but is sometimes above ground and can usually grow 0.9 m (3.0 ft) to 1.2 m (3.9 ft) tall.[2] [6] Plants usually have four to seven costapalmate leaves, each with 25–50 leaflets. The inflorescences, which are branched with a bushy appearance, are shorter than the leaves and bear brownish-black fruit. The fruit are 0.9–1.5 cm (0.4–0.6 in) and 0.8–1.3 cm (0.3–0.5 in) in diameter.[7][5]
Sabal is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae and the tribe Sabaleae.[8]
The species was first described by American botanist Walter Tennyson Swingle in 1896, based on collections made near Eustis, Florida, in 1894.[9] Sabal miamiensis is treated as either a synonym or a separate species by different authors.