G50 
PALMETTO 
blends well with other honeys. In the 
vicinity of Hawks Park, Fla., it blooms 
almost simultaneously with mangrove so 
that the two honeys are always secured to¬ 
gether. Farther south they are obtained 
separately. Of this blend of honeys, 
Langstroth, the father of American bee 
culture, wrote, “In color it is unexception¬ 
able and its flavor is very pleasant.” 
THE SCRUB PALMETTOES. 
Two low shrubs with creeping or hori¬ 
zontal stems, called scrub palmetto ( Sabal 
megacar pa) and saw palmetto ( Serenoa 
serrulata) are also valuable honey plants 
in Florida. Beekeepers frequently fail to 
distinguish between them, and regard them 
as a single species. The leafstalks of the 
scrub palmetto are sharp-edged, but not 
toothed, while the leafstalks of the saw 
palmetto are armed with numerous sharp 
spink teeth. The true palmettoes (Sabal) 
may readily be distinguished by the thread¬ 
like fibres on the margins of the leaves. In 
the scrub palmetto the three cells of the 
ovary are wholly united, but in the saw 
palmetto they are free at the base. The 
two species also differ in distribution. The 
scrub palmetto is confined to peninsular 
Florida, while the saw palmetto grows in 
dry soil from Forth Carolina to Florida 
and Texas, extending northward to Arkan¬ 
sas. 
The scrub palmetto ( Sabal megacar pa) is 
a low shrub with long, crooked, creeping 
stems, which are partly subterranean. At 
intervals the stems root and send up clus¬ 
ters of light-green fan-shaped leaves four 
to seven feet tall. The plant is not injured 
by frosts, and when burned to the ground 
a new growth requires only a year. The 
scrub palmetto grows well over the south¬ 
ern two-thirds of the peninsula of Florida, 
becoming rarer and smaller toward the 
northern boundary of the State. It reaches 
the largest size south of a line extending 
from Tampa to the east coast. On the 
west coast for miles north and south of 
Tampa it forms an unbroken sea of green. 
The traveler on the Seaboard Airline Rail¬ 
road, may ride for miles without losing 
sight of the scrub palmetto, which offers 
an impressive appearance in such large 
masses. It grows over all of the “flat- 
woods,” or low pine lands, which overflow 
more or less during the rainy season, also 
along all the water courses, and on the 
edges of the heavy hammocks. The latter 
places are most suitable, for there the 
shrubs grow 8 feet tall or more, and yield 
the most honey. The stunted plants in 
the flatwoods do not yield as well. There 
are still large areas of scrub palmetto ham¬ 
mocks and flatwoods as yet unoccupied by 
beemen, which offer an attractive field for 
bee culture. An objection to these locali¬ 
ties is that the palmetto is usually the only 
nectar-secreting plant in the region, and 
colonies must be watched closely or they 
will run out of stores in seasons when it 
does not bloom. But year in and year out 
there is no more reliable honey plant in 
Florida than the scrub palmetto. 
It begins to bloom at Fort Myers and 
Miami in April, and farther north in May. 
The small, white, stalkless, fragrant flowers 
are borne in a great many-branched flower- 
cluster, which is 2 to 4 feet in length. Too 
much rain during the blooming period pro¬ 
duces mildew; too much heat and dry 
weather parch the bloom and cause it to 
wither early. Both conditions are detri¬ 
mental to nectar secretion. When soil and 
weather conditions are favorable there is a 
profuse secretion of nectar. From 6 to 8 
pounds daily per hive have been reported 
from this source, and 8 or 9 pounds are not 
unknown; an average of 100 pounds per 
colony has been secured. The honey is 
lemon yellow, thick and heavy, with an 
aromatic flavor and fragrance. It is con¬ 
sidered one of the finest honeys in Florida, 
but possibly is surpassed by white tupelo 
honey. It granulates early but not as 
quickly as orange honey. 
Saw palmetto ( Serenoa serrulata) close¬ 
ly resembles scrub palmetto in flower and 
fruit, and also gives a large honey flow. 
The honey is similar to that of scrub palm¬ 
etto, with which it is usually mixed, as both 
species bloom at the same time. As has 
been pointed out the saw palmetto has a 
much wider distribution, extending far be¬ 
yond the boundaries of Florida. In the 
extreme southern portion of the State it 
becomes a tree 20 feet tall. 
The cocoanut palm ( Cocos nucifera) 
grows in southern Florida, and thruout 
the West Indies and the tropical regions 
