Showing posts with label Mexican Trees The Cabbage Palmetto Palm used for Headaches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexican Trees The Cabbage Palmetto Palm used for Headaches. Show all posts

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Mexican Trees The Cabbage Palmetto Palm used for Headaches, to lower fevers, Prostate

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 347-365









The Cabbage Palmetto Palm, (English) Palmera Ornamental (Spanish), Sabal palmetto, Arecaceae Family. This beautiful Sabal palmetto has "fan" fond that form a rather ornamental overlapping pattern on its trunk as it is trimmed; such overlapping pattern allow the trunk to become a perfect site for wild orchids, ferns and bromeliads to grow and bloom.  Sabal palmetto trees can grow more than 20 meters tall; its yellow blooms have a rich nectar that attracts many bees and birds. 

The cabbage palm is so named, because the american indians cooked the interior of the palm growing stems into an edible dish tasting like cabbage. This palm tree is also native to the southeastern U.S. where it is known ad the sable palm tree. The palm is moderately cold hardy to survive temperatures (brief) of zero degrees F. and is popularly planted as a landscape tree.  

S. palmetto grows to a height of 10 – 25 m (32-82 feet), with a stem diameter of approximately 30 – 60 cm (12-24 inches). Leaves may measure up to 3 m (9.8 feet) in length. Fruits are small, measuring approximately 8 mm (1/3 inch) in width. Root systems are deeply penetrating, and may reach depths of 4.6 – 6.1 m  

During June and July, abundant, small (.5cm), fragrant, white flowers are borne upon drooping, branched cluster. The berry-like fruits are small (1.5cm), shiny and black. Each fruit contains one seed.

Reforestation using The Cabbage Plametto Palm
 
S. palmetto flowers from April through August, depending upon latitude. S. palmetto is insect pollinated. Fruit develops throughout the fall, and ripens in winter . Birds and small mammals that eat the fruit of this tree aid in seed dispersal. 

Optimum growth occurs in humid subtropical to warm temperate climates where average rainfall is 100 – 163 cm (39-64 inches), and average maximum/minimum temperatures range from –4 - 36° C (25-97 ° F). Northern growth is limited by low winter temperatures. Preferred soil type for S. palmetto is calcium rich, and neutral to alkaline in nature. Cabbage palms prefer poorly drained soils, and often grow at the edge of freshwater and brackish wetlands. This species tolerates flooding  

ENVIRONMENT: Brackish marshes, seacoast, woodlands or hammocks and sandy soils near the coast  

Uses
 
It is not without surprise that the palm also provides a substantial part of the diet of many animals including deer, bear, raccoon, squirrel, bobwhite, and wild turkey.  And while the S. palmetto may not make up much of the human diet, palms themselves are the third most important crop for humans. Cabbage Palms also like their feet dry so in swamps and other wet areas they are a signal for higher, dryer ground. Look for them when slogging through swamps. 

Medicinal Uses





















The seeds and berries were used for headaches and to lower fevers.  

Native Americans used saw palmetto berries to treat impotence, inflammation of the prostate and bronchial congestion. In the 1800s, settlers made extracts to treat cystitis, gonorrhea and enlarged prostate.

 
In Germany, up to 95 percent of patients with benign prostate hyperplasia are first treated with an herbal extract from saw palmetto berries.

Sabal Palmetto is used as analgesic, febrifuge and dietary aid. Native Americans use the berries or the seeds of Palmetto to lower fever, to treat headache and grass sickness and for weight loss.