# Dwarf Palmetto (Sabal minor)

> A hardy palm for wet shade whose trunk stays underground, sending up evergreen fans up to 5 feet across and tall stalks of fragrant flowers.

Also called bush palmetto, swamp palmetto, blue-stem palmetto, latanier, Sabal louisiana. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-palmetto/

![Dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor) blue-green fan leaf rising from leaf litter on a forest floor](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/dwarf-palmetto-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Congaree National Park, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADwarf_Palmetto_%2810562472575%29.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 4 to 10 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 7 to 10
- Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, the forest understory, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 10 states, north to [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC) and [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX))
- Sun: Part, Full, Shade
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet, Dry
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May to July
- Fruit: Berries, September to November
- First crop: 20 or more years
- Mature spread: 8 ft
- Traits: Evergreen, Tolerates wet soil, Tolerates shade, Winter interest, Wildlife value, Salt tolerant, Drought tolerant, Showy flowers
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

Dwarf palmetto is a palm whose trunk usually stays below the soil, so its fan-shaped leaves rise straight from the ground. It is the most cold-tolerant of the palmettos, and established plants often survive 0 degrees F. Plants that stand in water may grow a short trunk, and in Louisiana such forms were once named as a separate species. Its seed travels by water, perhaps more than any other palmetto's. Its evergreen fans stay attractive through the winter. Grow it as an accent in a damp, shady spot, beside a pond or in a rain garden.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Dwarf palmetto grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a clump 4 to 10 feet tall and 4 to 8 feet wide, and it seldom suckers. Each fan runs 1 to 5 feet across on a smooth stalk with no teeth, split into narrow, stiff segments.

Branched stalks up to 6 feet long carry small, fragrant, creamy white flowers from May to July, well above the leaves. Shiny black berries about a third of an inch across ripen from September to November. Robins, raccoons and many other birds and mammals eat them.

It grows wild from North Carolina south to Florida and west to Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and into northeastern Mexico. Its home is swamps, floodplains, levees, river banks and moist hammocks, and in central Texas even dry hillsides. NatureServe ranks it imperiled in Oklahoma, at the northwest edge of its range.

## How to grow Dwarf Palmetto

Dwarf palmetto is a trunkless palm for part shade, and it also grows in full sun or shade. It wants a rich, moist soil and takes poor drainage, standing water and short floods. Once rooted it rides out dry spells, though the leaf tips may brown. It takes some salty wind but not direct salt spray. In zone 7, give it a spot sheltered from winter winds. Set plants 4 feet apart and keep them 4 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the base of the plant at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stem. Clean the pulp off the seed and never let it dry. Sow it in fall, half an inch to an inch deep, in a moist, muddy bed. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 30 days first. It is slow, and some seed takes up to two years to sprout.

Water weekly through the first two summers unless the ground stays wet, since it needs plenty of water while it settles in. Mulch around the base before winter. Deer seldom damage it.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Native bees, honeybees and wasps carry the pollen. It has no serious pest or disease.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Sabal minor](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/sabal-minor/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Sabal minor](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=276679&isprofile=0)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Sabal minor](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SAMI8)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 22: Sabal minor](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200027117)
- [Florida Native Plant Society: Sabal minor](https://www.fnps.org/plant/sabal-minor)
- [Native Plant Network, Gary Fine, USDA NRCS Golden Meadow Plant Materials Center, 2001: Sabal minor](https://npn.rngr.net/renderNPNProtocolDetails?selectedProtocolIds=arecaceae-sabal-1230)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Sabal chapter, Olson, Barnes and Karrfalt](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Sabal.pdf)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Sabal minor](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.138270/Sabal_minor)
- [Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory: tracking list](https://obis.ou.edu/tracking-list)
- [Abrahamson, W. G. and C. R. Abrahamson 2009, Life in the slow lane: palmetto seedlings exhibit remarkable survival but slow growth in Florida's nutrient-poor uplands, Castanea 74](https://doi.org/10.2179/08-033.1)
- [Butler, C. J. and M. Larson 2020, Climate change winners and losers: the effects of climate change on five palm species in the southeastern United States, Ecology and Evolution 10](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6697)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [How fast every tree and shrub we grow gets tall: growth rate, A to Z](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/growth-rates/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- Trees to plant it under: [Swamp Laurel Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-laurel-oak/index.html.md), [Florida Maple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/florida-maple/index.html.md) and [Spruce Pine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/spruce-pine/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Dwarf Palmetto, add ?species=dwarf-palmetto with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 7, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto&zone=7&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Dwarf Palmetto](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Dwarf Palmetto as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Dwarf Palmetto is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Dwarf Palmetto needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=dwarf-palmetto:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Dwarf Palmetto where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Dwarf Palmetto goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=dwarf-palmetto&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Dwarf Palmetto flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=dwarf-palmetto