Sabal Species, Puerto Rican Hat Palm, Puerto Rico Palmetto

This is a massive tree when it grows up. It's also a fairly fast grower. Not suited to planting anywhere but shopping centers, freeway is...Read Morelands, and industrial parks. The fans are much larger [almost as large as Bismarckia fans] than those of other Sabal palms I'm familiar with. We grew a few hundred of these and sold them mostly for freeway and shopping center plantings.

One of the larger and faster growing Sabals- eventually ends up with a thick, concrete-like trunk 30 feet+ tall. But in So Cal there are...Read More none that tall (yet). This species tends to get symptoms of potassium deficiency easily (yellow to necrotic spots on leaves and yellow blanching of the older leaves). This has been the case with my own palms. The petioles develop a nice yellow-green hue, which looks nice to me, but is not a sign of health unfortunately. Fortunately most plants seem to grow along without any other untoward problems and eventually usually grow out of it. Not terribly unique as a young adult Sabal and I confess most Sabals look similar to me.