The Sabal palmetto is native to the south eastern United States (Florida and South Carolina), Bahamas and Cuba, where it grows usually along the sandy coasts and the margins of the marshes and waterways.

Palm with a solitary trunk, tall up to 20 m, and a diameter of about 30 cm in the median area, covered for a good part by the residuals of the old leaves petioles, which cross in a characteristic way.

The leaves are costapalmate, of about 2 m of length. Widely cultivated palm, especially in the south of USA and in the Caribbean, for its ornamental characteristics and its rusticity, it adapts, in fact, to various types of soil, and shows also a high resistance to the saltiness and to the low temperatures (as low as -12 °C).

The vegetative apex was much appreciated by the natives, from which the common name of cabbage palm, but its collection, still practised, even if in a very limited extent in certain areas, causes the death of the palm, as it is the only point from which the plant can grow.