''Sabal domingensis'', the Hispaniola palmetto, is a species of

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

which is native to

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

(in both the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

) and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Description

''Sabal domingensis'' is a

fan palm Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of Arecaceae, palms (Arecaceae) in various Genus, genera with leaves that are palmately lobed (rather than pinnately compound). Most are members of the subfamily Coryphoide ...

with solitary, very stout stems, which grows up to tall and in diameter. Plants have 20–30 leaves, each with about 90 leaflets. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s, which are branched, arching and at least as long as the leaves, bear pear-shaped, black fruit. The fruit are in diameter; fruit size and shape are the main characteristics by which this species differs from ''

Sabal causiarum ''Sabal causiarum'', commonly known as the Puerto Rico palmetto or Puerto Rican hat palm, is a species of palm which is native to Hispaniola (in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Puerto Rico, and the British Virgin Islands. As its common an ...

''.

Common names

In English, ''Sabal domingensis'' is known as the "Hispaniola palmetto", "Hispaniola palm", or "Dominican palm". In

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, it is known (along with ''

'') as ''palma cana'' in the Dominican Republic, and in

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

as ''latanier-chapeau''.

Distribution

''Sabal domingensis'' is found from northwest Haiti to the central Dominican Republic on Hispaniola, and is also present in Cuba. It is usually found in

secondary vegetation A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused disturbances, such as timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or equivalently disruptive natura ...

between

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

Uses

The leaves are used for

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

and to weave a variety of items including hats, baskets and mats. SabalDomingensisBokeeliaFl

Etymology

The species has been given the specific epithet ''domingensis'', as it occurs on the island of Hispaniola; the island was historically called

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, or

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

References

External links

''Sabal Domingensis Info''
Floridata {{Taxonbar, from=Q845838 domingensis Trees of Haiti Trees of the Dominican Republic Trees of Cuba Plants described in 1908 Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari