A NEW ORNAMENTAL PALMETTO IN SOUTHERN TEXAS. 1 



By O. K. i'ook, Bionomist in Charge of Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation 



Investigations. 



Apart from the date palms, which are of Old World origin, only two 

 kinds of palms have qualified for general planting in southern Texas. 

 These are the Washingtonia palm, a native of the desert region of south- 

 ern California, and the palmetto. Several times in recent years the 

 Washingtonia palms in the city parks of San Antonio have had tneir 

 leaves partially killed by cold weather, while adjacent palmettos re- 

 mained entirely uninjured. Thus the palmettos may be reckoned as 

 the hardiest of all of the native North American palms. 



The minimum temperature recorded at San Antonio in the winter of 

 1910-11 was 16° F. and in the following year 18° F. At Victoria, 

 Tex., the cultivated palmettos have passed without any damage to 

 the leaves through freezes that killed many of the wild huisaches 

 (Acacia farnesiana) . Though certain other palms are able to survive 

 such temperatures and are worthy of being planted for special pur- 

 poses, the mutilation of the leaves means a loss of decorative value 

 for several months. Frost-proof foliage is especially desirable in an 

 ornamental species. 



There is a native Texas palmetto (Inodes texana), which is not 

 known to exist in a wild state except in the vicinity of Brownsville;- 

 but it seems to have extended much farther northward only a few 

 decades ago, and specimens may still be found about Indianola or at 

 other points along the Gulf coast. No doubt the same species extends 

 into adjacent regions of Mexico, but it differs from the palmettos of 

 other parts of that country. Sargent and other writers have referred 

 the Texan palmetto to Sabal mexicana Martius, but this species was 

 based on a small t runkless palm from a remote locality on the southern 

 coast of the State of Oaxaca, not far from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec 



1 Issued Feb. 1".. L913. 



2 This is in addition to the low, creeping, scrub palmettos which are widely distributed in swamps and 

 wet river bottoms of the Coastal Plain. The scrub palmettos belong to the genus Sabal, which was formerly 

 supposed to include both groups of palmettos. The genus Inodes differs from Sabal in the formation of a 

 thick, upright trunk by secondary thickening of the fibrovascular system below the terminal bud. As a 

 consequence of this habit of growth the leaf bases are split down the middle, as in i he Washingtonia palms, 

 but not in Sabal, Erythea, or Brahea. Another difference is that leaves of Sabal are few in number and 

 deeply divided in the middle, because of the slight development of the midrib. The strongly specialized 

 recurved midrib is a peculiarity of the genus Inodes. 



[Cir. 113] 11 



