ABSTRACT We report a modern Sabal...

ABSTRACT

We report a modern Sabal minor county record for North Carolina that portrays the furthest known northern population of the largely tropical family Arecaceae in eastern North America. We give a brief introduction to Sabal and explain on what account this S. minor population may depict a northward range expansion in reply to climate warming in northeast North Carolina. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of the two historical herbarium specimens and new day botanical collections to research upon climate change and plant population answers

INTRODUCTION

The genus Sabal Adans. (Arecaceae) comprises 16 species distributed along the coastal plains of the southeastern United States, eastern and western mainland Mexico, northwestern southern America, and a number of Caribbean islands (Zona 1990) Sabal minor (Jacq.) fors known commonly as the dwarf or swamp palmetto, is native to the southeastern United States (North Carolina, toward the south Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas). A disjunct population was discovered at Goldman (1999) in the Sierra Madre Oriental, west of Linares in Nuevo Le??n Mexico. It is the southernmost population of this species and likely portrays a previously undiscovered or unrecognized population (Goldman 1999; D Goldman, fors comm.). Other extant Sabal species native to the continental United States include s etonia Swingle ex Nash (Florida), s mexicana Mart. (Texas and Louisiana), and s palmetto (Walt.) Lodd. ex Schult (Florida, toward the south Carolina, North Carolina, and probably naturalized in Louisiana).

Sabal minor is more widespread than any other Sabal species in the United States and is commonly in good conservation standing everywhere make objection perhaps Oklahoma (listed as Sl "critically imperiled", www.natureserve.org). Sabal minor is morphologically distinct from s palmetto, the only other palm species in North Carolina, because it lacks an above landed estate stem and usually occupies a different habitat. Along the Atlantic and whirlpool coastal plains, it is a facultative wetland species and expands near oxygen-limited "blackwater" swamps, in floodplains and alluvial forests, moist beaches, and into mesic and drier (eg in Texas and Alabama) mixed hardwood and prairie communities further from the coast (Zona 1997) It can be construct on a number of substrates ranging from loamy limestone-derived soils to sandy soils. Sabal flowers are pollinated at bees, wasps, flies (Henderson 1986 Zona 1997) other insects, and probably wind to a smaller degree. The fruits, like other Sabal species (Zona 1997) are dispersed by means of birds and mammals (e.g., bear, deer raccoon). Sabal minor has floating fruits and thus is also believed to disperse via water (Zona 1990) Sabal minor is of particular horticultural interest because it is individual of the hardiest palms in existence (some to -206 Celsius or -5?°F) inclusive of all other Sabal species, and it is grown as far north as climate 6 (New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, etc)

We report a Sabal minor population institute on 30 October 2004 while canoeing onward Gardner Creek (Martin County), a tributary of the lower Roanoke River just southeast of the Bertie shire border in North Carolina (Figure 1) At UTM 18 325035E 3965735N (USGS NAD 83) or 35?°49'13''N and 76?°56'12''W the population is located upon a partially inundated hummock in a bottomland bald cypres swamp, growing with Nyssa aquatica L Acer rubrum L Taxodium distichum (L) L Rich, and Quercus lyrata Walt. It is approximately 20 meter southwest of the main channel, 20 ?— 15 m in area, and contains an estimated 35 individuals. Plants are approximately 10 to 16 m in height (contact authors for photographs). A voucher is housed at DUKE (Erin Tripp 119) The entire population was sterile and we originate no indication of a previous reproductive season (eg elderly peduncles, fruits). Nevertheless, we believe this to be a mature, reproductive population because the large number of individuals of varying sizes is probably fit to local reproduction. Sabal minor is not known to generate vegetatively, and 35 independent colonization terminations seem unlikely. Seeds and peduncle might have been washed away as this population's habitat is seasonally delugeed

METHODS

We viewed all North Carolina Sabal minor collections from the following herbaria: DUKE NCU US, and PH (28 specimens, behold Appendix), and we sampled all fertile s minor collections from the entire southeastern United States from DUKE and NCU (81 specimens). We chose these four herbaria because together they house a substantial number of southeastern United States collections from the 19th centenary to the present. We recorded the date, location (in UTM coordinates), and plant condition (flower shoot forths flowering, fruiting, sterile) for all specimens. Geographic coordinates were approximated if label locality descriptions were ambiguous. We also corresponded with curators at BH NCSC NY and UNCC to verify their northernmost collections of s minor.