Product Description

This exhaustively researched yet simply written book includes the sabal palm's life history, its relationship with man and place within natural systems. With an introduction by Marjory Stoneman Douglas and a chapter by James Billie, Chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida as well as contributions by other prominent botanists and conservationists, the book also includes delightful miscellany such as first-person accounts of 18th-century botanists of the tree, how hummingbirds construct nests using the trees, instructions on how to grow the trees from seed and transplant them and how to build a flutter mill of the fronds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1228831 in Books
• Published on: 1996-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 86 pages

Review
A fascinating tale of the Sabal palmetto, the state tree of Florida and South Carolina. Unlike horticultural writers who get bogged down in scientific names and esoterica, Oehlbeck has made the sabal come alive. -- Orlando Sun-Sentinel, Nov. 1, 1997

From the Publisher
Barbara Oehlbeck is a well-known, award-winning Florida horticultural writer. With this book, she branches into history and ethnography with great success, maintining her folksy, easy-to-read style.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From Chapter 1: To a stranger, the cabbage palm may resemble a rough-hewn utility pole topped with a huge, floppy dust mop. Yet this is one of the most versatile trees in North America. Because the sabal palm is home to so many wild animals and plants and because it has been so important to many of the indigenous peoples in its range, some refer to it as "the tree of life." As the official state tree of both Florida and South Carolina, Sabal palmetto is perhaps the South's best-known native palm.