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| On a recent, warm December day, we set off to find the elusive Oklahoma population of the Dwarf Palmetto, Sabal minor. I say elusivebecause both of us had previously visited the Southeast corner of the state with no success in finding them. And friends of ours had done the same, with the same disappointing results. |
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Armed with what we believed to be accurate information about where palms had been found in the past, we set off well before sunrise. Even with Turnpike speed limits of 75 mph, the trip was about four hours, but we were rewarded at our first stop. Less than 1/4 mile off the state highway on a side road we saw more than a dozen small palms. They were on the shoulder and in the cattle pastures on either side of the road. The trip was already a success. |
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The first group of palms showed evidence of some predation by the cows that shared their pasture. The lack of seed stalks and nearby seedling plants suggested that perhaps the cows' favorite part of a palmetto is the inflorescence |
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A trip of less than a mile from the first group revealed a much denser population, in a different habitat. The first had been in well grazed pasture, very open except for a few pecan trees. These were in mixed forest and were, probably due to the lower light level, considerably larger. |
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Bryan and a palm with fronds reaching 5 and 6 feet. |
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A few miles down the road we came to the only group of trees that could be seen from a major highway. |
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They were locally common, in pastures, with no seeds in evidence. |
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So, how could so many people have looked for these plants without finding them? Perhaps some (like me) had not driven that particular stretch of highway. Others may have come at the wrong time of year. If these fields had been viewed from a car when they were full of green grass, the small palms would have been very hard to see |
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Not a palm photo, but something else we had never seen in Oklahoma. Epiphytic ferns. This branch was completely covered with ferns for 8-10 feet of its length, about 20 feet above the ground. Many other branches also had ferns growing on them, but in fewer numbers. |
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At the end of the day we decide to make one more side trip while there was still light. We were rewarded by the nicest group of palms yet. Big, nice plants, more than half of which held seeds. The habitat here was more like an eastern hardwood forest. Lots of rolling hills, limestone boulders, native bamboo--Arundinaria gigantea, and more tree-dwelling ferns. |
