I have many of these on my property along a wild canal. Years ago I planted a Chinese Fan Palm I purchased in my front yard in the corner of a flower bed. I don't recall why I dug it up unless it grew too large and I disposed of it or so I thought. Now, I believe that's what's growing and providing wonderful privacy in my backyard. It looks too attractive to be a scrub palm so I am convinced mine is derived from that original Chinese Fan Palm. Does the name sound familiar to you? I'm no expert by any means but that was the name on the tag of my palm when I purchased it.

no, i'm not familiar with chinese fan palms. i googled it and the images of the leaves are more deeply dissected than the palms i have, they also grow to thirty feet, and the chinese fan palm is a Livistona not a Sabal. from what i know i'm more apt to think mine is a sabal than a livistona. the ones i have do make great privacy screens. seems like a chinese fan palm would stop providing privacy once it got to be a certain height.

thanks carol ... i appreciate it.

You are very welcome. I understand completely.

It's the common variety of Sabal minor.

as far as i'm concerned Sabal minor is not a variety, or subset, but a species of the genus Sabal.

I've been in florida most of my life and have seen many, many, natural stands of dwarf palmettos, that were there for hundreds of years, and the palms/palmettos I am trying to ID do not look those. mine look like a cross between a dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor) and a cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto), which is why i think it is a variety called Sabal minor var. louisiana.

I don’t believe they are dwarf palmettos and here are some reasons why.

Sabal minor … dwarf palmetto … has a solitary subterranean stem (rarely above ground to 2 m) and 4–10 dark green leaves with a weak costa …. Leaf segments are only joined a short distance near the base and have no filamentous fibers… http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fr357

The particular palms I am trying to ID have very prominent, above ground, stems/trunks … are NOT joined a short distance from the base and DO have filamentous fibers.

dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor) … has a trunk that is either very short or below the ground. … There are usually no more than a half dozen leaves on a single plant. They differ from the leaves of other native dwarf palms by having a split 'V' right in the middle. … The usual size is 4 to 5 feet high and wide and the growth rate is slow. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/trees/hgic1019.html

The particular palms I am trying to ID have dozens of leaves on a single plant, do not have a split V in the middle, and are taller than 4 to 5 feet.

S. minors’ trunks ‘rarely’ emerge, but are mostly subterranean … occasionally emerge, but grow along the ground. .. according to two texts I have sitting on my desk - trees, shrubs, and woody vines of northern florida and adjacent georgia and alabama, godfrey and wooten and the guide to the vascular plants of florida, wunderlin and hansen.

the particular palms I am trying to ID grows too fast having trunks exposed too early in life.

I don’t believe they are dwarf palmettos (Sabal minor).

My Sabal Louisianas are 12 feet tall with up to two feet of clear trunk and are only 12 years old in zone 7b. Ones in Savannah, GA are even bigger than mine. Your dwarf palmettos are blessed with good soil. That's why they hold so many leaves and grew a little larger in size.

Carol the Chinese Fan palm is Livistona chinensis. Sabal palms look very similar in most cases and are very difficult to differentiate when juvenile.

Thanks. Great information.