A Sarasota Environmentalist’s New Book Is a Love Letter to the Cabbage Palm
From Sarasota Magazine, April 22,2021
Jono Miller’s new collection of essays is meant to give the palm the credit it’s due.
Miller’s drawing of cabbage palms
IMAGE: JONO MILLER
Behold! The common sabal palm tree. Also known as the cabbage palm or swamp cabbage, the tree’s ubiquity in the South, especially in the Southern Florida landscape, makes it go almost unnoticed. And while the tree is our subtropical hallmark, it gets little respect from Floridians. In fact, the state emblem is not the indigenous palmetto, but the exotic coconut tree.
Resident palm enthusiast Jono Miller is on a mission to change all that. Miller, a natural historian and the former co-director of the Environmental Studies Program at New College of Florida, has just published The Palmetto Book: Histories and Mysteries of the Cabbage Palm. It’s a collection of essays meant to give the palm the credit it’s due.
Read the entire story here.