Species
+

Sabal mexicana Mart.

Mexican cabbage palm, Mexican palmetto, Rio Grande palmetto, Texas Sabal Palm

Climate known 68 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sabal mexicana is a species of palm tree that is native to far southern North America. Common names include Rio Grande palmetto, Mexican palmetto, Texas palmetto, Texas sabal palm, palmetto cabbage and palma de mícharos. The specific epithet, "mexicana", is Latin for "of Mexico."

Text from Wikipedia, “Sabal mexicana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Sabal

Sabal is a genus of New World palms. Currently, there are 17 recognized species of Sabal, including one hybrid species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sabal”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
Mart.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +7
Wild records
1220 in range· 480 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jun, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1154mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 223 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1154 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest March at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.3 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Erythea loretensis M.E.Jones; Inodes exul O.F.Cook; Inodes mexicana (Mart.) Standl.; Inodes texana O.F.Cook; Sabal exul (O.F.Cook) L.H.Bailey and 2 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (865 mm of 1154 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1154 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest March at 25 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1154 mm a year at the habitat, 865 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 223 mm, driest March at 25 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 675 mm to 1868 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 7.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.3 °C, the absolute minimum -1.0 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.6 °C to 21.9 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 7.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jun; mean night from 16 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1154 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 607 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–40RH 58–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 607 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 18–3026 / 20–3128 / 23–3230 / 26–3431 / 28–3431 / 28–3431 / 28–3431 / 28–3530 / 27–3228 / 25–3027 / 22–3024 / 18–29
Night °C16 / 8–2216 / 9–2218 / 12–2321 / 15–2523 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 19–2521 / 17–2418 / 12–2316 / 8–23
Rain mm31 / 5–8627 / 7–7025 / 7–6240 / 16–6886 / 53–148176 / 71–285168 / 60–309175 / 53–321223 / 101–371123 / 69–27248 / 19–12032 / 8–99
DLI25 / 19–3430 / 23–3836 / 30–4340 / 35–4540 / 37–4439 / 35–4240 / 36–4339 / 35–4134 / 31–3530 / 27–3326 / 21–3323 / 18–33
RH %60 / 56–6459 / 55–6358 / 54–6258 / 54–6360 / 56–6563 / 59–6763 / 58–6763 / 56–6765 / 59–6863 / 58–6660 / 58–6460 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 607 grid cells holding the 1168 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1369:1632 (21.525, -98.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 607 distinct grid cells holding the 1168 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1369:1632 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-98.125, lapse-corrected -60 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 53 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.187, -97.663 · in the densest population, 771 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1220 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 480 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 920 km away. 16 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 52 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1220 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicanaSabal mexicana

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) mattmsa, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) nmoorhatch, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sabal mexicana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence of a 16SrIV Group Phytoplasma not Previously Associated with Palm Species in Yucatan, Mexico
Roberto Vázquez-Euán, N. A. Harrison, María Narváez, Carlos Oropeza (2011) · Plant Disease
Hydrology, Soil Carbon Sequestration and Water Retention along a Coastal Wetland Gradient in the Alvarado Lagoon System, Veracruz, Mexico
Patricia Moreno‐Casasola, María E. Hernández, Adolfo Campos C. (2017) · Journal of Coastal Research
Pestalotioid species associated with palm species from Southern China
YR Xiong, Ishara S. Manawasinghe, SSN Maharachchikumbura, Leilei Lu (2022) · Current Research in Environmental & Applied Mycology
Use of Tents by the Big Fruit-Eating BatArtibeus lituratus(Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) in Chiapas, Mexico
Luis Arturo Hernández‐Mijangos, Rodrigo A. Medellín (2013) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Karyotype Analysis of Three Species of Sabal, L (Palmae: Coryphoideae).
Guadalupe Palomino, Hermilo J. Quero (1992) · CYTOLOGIA
EXTENSION OF NATIVE RANGE OF SABAL MEXICANA (PALMAE) IN TEXAS TO INCLUDE CENTRAL COAST
Landon Lockett, Robert W. Read (1990) · Biodiversity Heritage Library (Smithsonian Institution)
Biomass and Carbon Capture in Trees at Amelia Earhart Park, Miami Dade County, Florida, US
Antonio Mijail Pérez, Dora Pilar Maul, Luis Alfredo Cendan (2022) · European Journal of Environment and Earth Sciences
Epidemic of lethal yellowing disease affecting Phoenix dactilyfera and Sabal mexicana in Central Mexico
Katia Aviña‐Padilla, Luis Alfonso Rodríguéz-Páez, Á. I. Nava-Castrejón, Juan Carlos Ochoa-Sánchez (2011) · Bulletin of Insectology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Sabal 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 53 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.