Sabal etonia
Encyclopedia
Sabal etonia, commonly known as the scrub palmetto is a species of palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 which is endemic to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and southeast Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

.

Description

Sabal etonia is a fan palm
Fan palm
Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of palms in various genera with leaves that are palmately compound...

 with a solitary stem that is usually subterranean but is sometimes above ground and up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. Plants usually have 4–7 costapalmate leaves, each with 25–50 leaflets. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s, 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 (0.354330708661417–0.590551181102362 in) and 0.8–1.3 cm (0.31496062992126–0.511811023622047 in) in diameter.

Taxonomy

Sabal is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae
Coryphoideae
Coryphoideae is a subfamily of the palm tree family, Arecaceae....

 and the tribe
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

 Sabaleae. As of 2008, there appear to be no molecular phylogenetic studies of Sabal.

The species was first described by American botanist Walter Tennyson Swingle
Walter Tennyson Swingle
Walter Tennyson Swingle was an American agricultural botanist who was born in Canaan, Pennsylvania and moved with his family to Kansas two years later. He graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1890, and studied in Bonn in 1895-96 and 1898...

 in 1896, based on collections made near Eustis, Florida
Eustis, Florida
Eustis is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 15,106 at the 2000 census. The Census Bureau estimated the population in 2008 to be 19,129. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

in 1894.
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