Datasheet

woodanecdote
round
the
world, the
palm
tree
family numbers more than
2,000
species. Most of them
grow
in
tropical
lands and are best
known for
the
products
they
yield,
such as oil,
nuts,
dates, and sugar,
rather
than their odd
wood. Its non-grainy compaction of
very
hard fibers is not
like wood
at all.
The cabbage
palmetto
(Sabal
palmetto)
of South Carolina and
Florida is
a
palm,
also, but a
far
cry
from its
graceful
tropi-
cal cousins.
Cabbage
palmetto
is rather
small and
plain,
barely
reaching
50'
tall
and
a 24"
diameter.
Nevertheless, the tree
contributed
mightily to our history.
When General William Moultrie
defended
Charleston
Harbor against the
British fleet on June
28. 1776. he
and
his
Cabbage
palmetto
derives
its name
from the taste
of
its leaf
buds.
patriot
army of South Carolinians
were
protected
by a stockade built of cabbage
palm
logs.
Today,
that occasion
is
com-
memorated on the state seal of South
Carolina,
prominently
embellished
with
the
image
of a cabbage
palm.
Beyond its historical
value,
the cabbage
palm
does
have
some commercial
value.
Its main
claim to
fame is the tender leaf
bud at the top of the trunk that, when
cooked, takes on a
cabbage-like flavor.
You'll find it
canned and
labeled
"heart
of
palm" in
some supermarkets.
The
tree's wood
has little value,
though,
except as
fence posts
and
poles.
And
cross sections of cabbage
palm
are
occasionally worked
into lustrous
table-
tops for the tourist trade.
Some other
palm
species, such as
Southeast
Asia's sugar
palm,
exhibit
greater
versatility. Its trunk
is
tapped
and
the liquid boiled down to a tasty
sugar.
When harvested
young, its fruit
provides
sustenance, too.
The
outer
portions
of the
sugar
palm's
trunk are made
into
tool
han-
dles. Other
fibrous
parts
become rope.
|l
Written by Peter J. Stephano
lllustration: Brian
Jensen
www.woodonline.com
31
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