Native saw palmetto brightens SC winter landscapes, gives food and shelter to wildlife

As we’re seeing this year, even Lowcountry winters can seem cold and dreary sometimes, but we’re lucky to have plenty of green in the landscape.

For example, saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) — that tough, low-growing palm so common in backyards and coastal woodlands — provides a lush, green, tropical look year-round.

It’s one of some 2,600 species in the palm family (Arecaceae), of which only 14 are native to the U.S.

Saw palmetto is common along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, from South Carolina to the Florida Keys and west to Louisiana. It’s a prominent understory shrub in oak and pine forests, forming dense thickets up to 7 feet high via spreading underground stems.

Sometimes (for reasons still unclear), saw palmetto assumes a tree-like form, growing 25 feet or taller. The plant is highly resistant to fire. Even when its above-ground foliage is burned to the ground, new leaves sprout again quickly from the crowns. Saw palmetto is one of the first plants to colonize burned areas.

Probably its most striking feature are those huge, compound, evergreen leaves — sometimes three feet across. Each leaf is composed of several dozen small, stiff leaflets arranged like a fan. At the base is a long leaf stalk with tiny spines along the edges. Watch out for these saw-like teeth as they can easily snag your skin or clothing.

The tough leaves of saw palmetto are the sole food source for a nondescript little moth (Natrachedra decoctor), native to the Southeast.

In the summer, the plant produces small, fragrant, yellowish-white flowers, which give rise to oval, reddish-black fruits — food for deer, raccoons, foxes and other animals.

The Seminole Indians also ate the fruits, and colonial pioneers made them into a beverage. Saw palmetto was used in traditional medicine to treat infertility, inflammation, coughing, impotence and respiratory disorders.

Even today, extracts are touted as treatments for prostate problems and male pattern baldness. You can buy saw palmetto pills online or in stores. But medical research is scanty here, and it’s still unclear whether these remedies are effective or even safe.

Better, perhaps, to appreciate saw palmetto as a virtually indestructible landscape plant, as well as a valuable component of the natural Lowcountry environment.

It’s also a good landscaping investment. Some saw palmetto plants have reached venerable ages, reputedly 500 years or more.