Today's Kill

 I remember seeing a picture of my grandfather as a young man standing in front of a structure where a few dozen ducks were hanging; the spoils from his hunt. It was unsettling to me. 

But, today I had my own booty: a baker's dozen of Sabal Palm seedlings! 

We have 4 Sabal Palms, also called Cabbage Palms, behind our house. They are messy plants, and definitely not my choice! The lower branches of the palms die. They hang onto the tree for a while, making it look like the tree is sick, then they break off leaving a "boot" behind. This is the "Y" shaped base that straddles the trunk. It is what makes the area under the fronds look like some sort of lattice.  The boots also eventually fall off. More stuff to pickup! 

And if the fronds and the boots aren't messy enough, each spring several flower stalks, up to 7 feet in length, emerge with thousands of tiny flowers, that turn into thousands of seeds. The good news is that the flowers and seeds feed a variety of wildlife. The bad news is that the seeds that aren't eaten (lots and lots of them) sprout when they fall to the ground. I am constantly pulling them up.

However, if they aren't pulled out promptly they will become secure in the ground and required a shovel and some elbow grease to get them out. 

All palm seedlings, take notice, I am waging war on you! I will continue to dig you out. I will search for each of one of you that dares to put down a root and grow, even the tiniest bit. I will cut you off at the knees, well, I'll cut your flower stalks, at least those I can reach with a tree trimmer. I do not want you here! 

Despite the fact that I don't like them in my garden, I am fascinated by the structure of the 'root'.  It's like an upside down carrot, with a smooth round bottom end, and a point growing up the sides of the frond stalks. The palm grows wider before it begins to put on height. It can take 15 or more years before the tree begins to show height, and at that point whatever the diameter of the base is, is the final diameter of the tree. Unlike most trees, the palm does not put on growth rings each year.