Silver Palmetto
Location
Trees in The Gardens
Serenoa repens ‘Silver’
- Common Name: Silver Palmetto
- Scientific Name: Serenoa repens ‘Silver’
- Family Name: Arecaceae
- Origin: native to Florida
- Height: 5’ – 6’
- Width: 4’ – 8’ (but can spread to 20’)
- Growth: Slow
- Zone: 6 – 10
- Light Needs: Full sun – Partial sun
- Salt Tolerance: high
- Soil/PH/Texture: isn’t too picky, clay, sand, or loam soils or a mix, have adapted to Florida’s sandy soils and do not need soil amendments unless the soil has too much clay. Fertilize bi-annually if they under perform with a palm fertilizer.
- Soil Moisture: likes well drained soil, likes moderate amounts of water but will survives on only rainfall once established
- Drought Tolerance: high
- Pests/Diseases: no serious pests are normally seen on the plant
- Growing Conditions: easy to grow and low maintenance – aggressively spreading, best transplanted when young – do not do well transplanting when older, very cold hardy.
- Characteristics: is a natural mutation of the green saw palmetto, the leaves of this palm have an alternate arrangement, are simple, star-shaped, palmate venation, blades can be more than 36”, and silver/gray – blue-green in color. The flowers are yellow white with a pleasant fragrance. Its fruit are oval, .5” – 1” in length, blue/black and not very showy. The trunk and branches are showier with their multi-trunks and clumping stems and sometimes grow horizontally along the ground.
- Propagation: usually by seed but is terribly slow growing.
- Wildlife: attracts butterflies, birds, and bees. The fruit is an important food source for birds and mammals. The flowers are incredibly attractive to bees and will produce a good quality honey from them.
- Facts: The name comes from the saw-like teeth on the leaf stems. In Western herbal medicine the extract of the berries is used to treat urinary tract and prostate problems.
- Designer Considerations: use in a mass planting, as a specimen, naturalizing, borders, hedge or screen, reclamation plant, accent, as ground cover, at the base of other palms and trees, and easy to grow in containers.
