Saw Palmetto

Below is a typical saw palmetto plant. They look very much the same all year long. This is from the observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58571273.

The next picture is a saw palmetto plant observed flowering on May 30. It had at least two flower spikes. This is from the observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67926801.

This is a close-up of one of the flower spikes.

Next is a saw palmetto plant with green fruit on July 24. The fruit is not ripe yet. They were smaller than a very small grape or olive. This is from the observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88861038.

"Saw palmetto blooms between April and July. ... The fruits ripen in September and October." -- from https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/serrep/all.html.

"As ripening occurs, fruits turn in color from green (May-June) to yellow (mid-August), to orange (September), and then to bluish-black (September-October) when ripe." -- from https://web.archive.org/web/20080704212509/http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/UW/UW11000.pdf

"Fruit are orange to black when mature." -- from https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=sere2.

So next in my collection of images, I will try to find a saw palmetto with fruit turning yellow then orange then blue/black.

Posted on July 27, 2021 08:59 PM by differentdrummer