Serenoa repens

Geoff Stein - Author & Editor

Pronunciation: sair-en-NO-uh REP-enz/ruh-PENZ


Common Name: Saw Palmetto

Serenoa repens is a Florida native palm, and a very hardy, though very slow palm for California as well. Commonly used as a landscape palm on east coast, but very slow growth rate limits is use here in California for such purposes. Larger plants can be acquired and shipped in from east. Eventually grows into large hedges. Good for very cold and hot areas of southern California where few other palms can survive. There is a whitish-sivler form that is frequently sought after, but young palms disappointingly green (takes many years to develop a real silvery mound of palm). Palm not only grown for is ornamental uses, but also for its medicinal value.

Appearance and Biology
  • Habit: multiple stems with crowns of 10-20 fan leaves per stem
  • Height: 6' (to 8'-10' with support)
  • Trunk: suckering with trunkless or even underground, to multiple stemmed clusters; 5"-7" in diameter; covered with dark brown fiber and leaf bases
  • Crownshaft: none
  • Spread: 6'-10+
  • Leaf Description: palmate; sea-green, light green or whitish-grey; waxy; 1/2 circle; 3'-4' long; leaves divided 2/3 their length; stiff with minimal leaflet droop
  • Petiole/Leaf bases: thin; 2' to nearly 3' long; armed with small, closely spaced sharp teeth along margins; unsplit leaf bases, retained on trunks indefinitely
  • Reproduction: monoecious
  • Inflorescence: 2'-3' long; branched; from within leaf bases; white flowers
  • Fruit: 1" long; blue-black when ripe; source of medicine used for urinary problems
Horticultural Characteristics
  • Minimum Temp: 10F
  • Drought Tolerance: good
  • Dry Heat Tolerance: very good
  • Wind Tolerance: very good
  • Salt Tolerance: good
  • Growth Rate: very slow to slow with age (much faster in Florida climate)
  • Soil Preference: very widely adaptable
  • Light Requirement: partial to full sun
  • Human Hazards: saw-like petioles
  • Disease or Horticultural Problems: none
  • Transplants?: supposedly fairly easy
  • Indoor?: too light needy
  • Availability: moderately rare, though not very popular in California due to very slow growth, so not always available


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