As an avid enthusiast of cold hardy palms living in Atlanta, GA, I am quite interested in the most northern natural occurrence of palms. First it is for the excitement of knowing, and secondly maybe some of those palms might be a bit hardier than those from their more southern ranges. The genus Sabal is for sure the one I have planted the most around our house (including Sabal minor, Sabal palmetto, etc.)

But what about the southern most natural occurrence of sabals? This is certainly something I never really considered too much in the past, but it caught my attention and excitement on my last trip to Costa Rica in February 2007.

There I was able to visit the only known native stand of Sabals along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. This happened quite accidentally. While enjoying the ocean, perfect climate and some spectacular wildlife, I started wondering whether palms of the genus Sabal naturally occur in Costa Rica. So far the most common palms I had knowingly seen were mostly Coconut Palms (Cocos nucifera), Walking Palms (Socratea exorrhiza) etc., and they all looked distinctively different from what you see along the Georgia and Florida coasts.

But then I took part in a really fantastic rainforest hike lead by the German biologist Rolf Blancke in the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge located in the southeastern corner of Costa Rica, in close proximity to Panama. Please visit the following link so see the area using Google maps.

While having breakfast in the rainforest I asked him about Sabals and indeed he told me about a very small stand of Sabal mauritiiformis in the wildlife refuge. He told me that there are no other Sabals along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

Towards the end of our 6 hour hike we finally visited those Sabals. It was quite fascinating to see them. In my estimates I would guess that there are no more than 1-2 dozen mature Sabals there.

Also, I have found the following reference in the quarterly newsletter "The Cutting Edge" published by the Missouri Botanical Garden:

http://www.inbio.ac.cr/papers
/manual_plantas/oct98/oct98lea.html

It basically states that only in 1985 the natural occurrence of Sabals in Costa Rica was discovered. (Sounds like it was exactly the same place I was visiting). There is apparently also a stand of Sabal mauritiiformis along the pacific coast of Costa Rica, which was only documented in 1998.

Well, at the end don't get too hopeful - Sabal mauritiiformis is only hardy to about (25F) with leaf damage occurring below 29F (See also here.)

If you have any questions and/or remarks, please feel free to contact me at .