The Palm Hammock

Overview: The Palm Hammock hosts north Florida's most complete collection of cold hardy palm species, including several hybrid forms. Among its varied offerings is a specimen of the extremely rare double crowned cabbage Palm, Florida's state tree. Palms displayed range in size from diminutive trunkless forms to statuesque giants.

A closer look: Most of the earth’s nearly 3000 known species of palms are native to the tropics and subtropics.  While many are statuesque, others grow as creeping or trunkless forms and a few as vines.  Many species, including the coconut palm and date palm, produce edible fruits.  And a palm species native to the Seychelles Islands produces the largest seed of any known plant.  A specimen of this seed is on display in Kanapaha Botanical Gardens’ visitors center.

Florida’s state tree (also South Carolina’s) is the cabbage palm, so called because its edible meristematic tissue—called heart-of-palm or swamp cabbage—has a taste and crunchy texture suggestive of cabbage.  The demand for heart-of-palm is indirectly causing the decimation of the populations of many tropical palm species.