Welcome to the Palmetto Book and all things cabbage palm
A blog complementing The Palmetto Book: Histories and Mysteries of the Cabbage Palm, by Jono Miller
I was honored to be invited to make a presentation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in October of 2022, just a few weeks after Hurricane Ian swept through southwest Florida. This talk starts with some reflections on Ian and cabbage palms, then covers a few basics, describes some intriguing cabbage palm paradoxes, and ends with some observations about cabbage palms in Georgia, including a puzzling question about John Muir and the famous Bonaventure Cemetery.
Here’s an hour-long chat with the author of THE PALMETTO BOOK: Histories and Mysteries of the Cabbbage Palm, Jono Miller, sponsored by Sarasota’s Bookstore1.
It contains some readings from the Introduction (2:25), the Seminole Thatch (18:30 &35:15) chapter and the South Carolina Flag (36:50), but a large part of the chat involves responding to questions from viewers. Strangler figs (12:25 & 44:40), the roots, (15:40), bloom stalks (16:25), wounds to trunk (24:00) bootjack loss (25:30), range and age (29:30), are they grasses (33:00), rootball size and survivability (45:15),as food (49:10) can you girdle a cabbage palm(53:10). I also reflect on the cover design (10:05) and introduce five books whose style and approach were inspirations to me (5:30) feature some Sarasota connections (40:30), and propose a cabbage palm mystery that needs solution (41:50).
This post complements Chapter 7 Diseases Stalk the Cabbage Palm in my book, The Palmetto Book: Histories and Mysteries of the Cabbage Palm, published by the University of Florida Press.
Disclaimer: I am not a plant pathologist, I am a natural historian. These observations are my own, based on my familiarity with cabbage palms and having attended three day-long UF/IFAS summits (2017,2018, & 2019) on Lethal Bronzing.
Lethal Bronzing is a fatal disease that affects many species of palm trees, including our native cabbage palm, Sabal palmetto. It was first diagnosed in Florida in 2006. It was noticed and diagnosed upstream of Myakka River State Park in in Manatee County late May 2020. It was probably present along the Myakka months, or possibly years earlier.
Continue reading “Lethal Bronzing is Killing Cabbage Palms in the Myakka Watershed”