Palmetto
Palmetto, păl-mět'ō, a plant of the palm family. There are eight known species of palmettos belonging to the genus Sabal. They are native to the southern United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Bermuda, and the West Indies. Species native to the United States include the common palmetto and the Texas palmetto. The common palmetto, the state tree of Florida and South Carolina, sometimes attains a height of 90 feet (27 m). It is sometimes called the cabbage palmetto, because its terminal bud looks and tastes something like a cabbage. The Texas palmetto seldom grows taller than 50 feet (15 m).
Palmetto trunks are used for wharf piles and were formerly used for temporary fortifications because a cannonball would bury itself in the pithy wood without throwing splinters. The fan-shaped leaves are used for thatching. Fibers from the plant are made into scrub brushes, hats, mats, and baskets; the wood has been used for canes.
Other plants called palmetto include the saw-palmetto, a North American shrub with spiny-toothed leafstalks; and the European palmetto, a shrub of the Mediterranean region, the only palm native to Europe.
The common palmetto is Sabal palmetto; Texas, S. texana; saw-palmetto, Serenoa repens; European, Chamaerops humilis. All belong to the palm family, Palmae.