Landmark Hall, also known as the Rapelje-DeLaney House, is pictured on Government Street with sago palms flanking its front walk. Photo by Carmen K. Sisson
I sat in front of my keyboard, staring at the screen, trying to capture the unique essence of the sago palm. With thousands of sago palms in Mobile and Baldwin counties, I thought it would be easy. But in all honesty, it proved a prickly challenge — not unlike the plant itself. Any Southern gardener can attest that sago palms are nearly impossible to remove from a spot they once claimed. Some, like my wife, may wonder why I want to get rid of such a beautiful, hardy, low-maintenance and fascinatingly prehistoric plant in the first place. Simply put, because the number of cats and dogs killed yearly by the plant’s toxicity is growing.
Besides their toxicity, sago palms are also hugely interesting because of their resilience through the most turbulent times of this planet. The vibrant evergreen plant is one of the oldest on Earth, dating back to prehistoric times. It is native to the subtropical climate of southern Japan and thrives in our subtropical environment here along the Gulf Coast.
Cycads, the group of plants to which sago palms belong, first appeared around 300 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs, in what paleontologists call the Pennsylvanian period. It is believed that the dinosaurs may have thrived on the bright red berries of the sago palm, but it’s impossible to say for sure.
Interestingly, the late Michael Crichton, the writer of “Jurassic Park,” touches on this fact. We might wonder why the Triceratops in “Jurassic Park” didn’t die and why sago palm berries were never found in its GI tract. According to some paleontologists, Triceratops would keep stones (and, in this case, poison berries) in their system until they became too smooth; at this point, they would need to regurgitate them and swallow new, rougher stones.
In the movie, Tim, the future paleontologist, notices small piles of soft stones he recognizes from one of his books. Alan, the paleontologist, adds that they are gizzard stones, which some animals need to swallow and keep in a sack in their GI system to help “chew” and digest their rigid fibrous diet. Unfortunately, a storm arrived, and the scene was cut short, leaving everything to the audience’s imagination. Many paleontologists found the information to be believable, although only partly accurate.
I have to be honest, when my wife and I first moved to Mobile, I paid little attention to any plants, especially the exotic ones. A Southerner in heart and soul, the vegetation in Mobile and Baldwin counties seemed ordinary to me. That only changed as I started writing books and articles about the outdoors I love and the aspects threatening them. Plants first came to my attention through the alarming number of invasive species wreaking havoc everywhere. As we all know, the increasing presence of non-native species moving west along the panhandle of Florida, Alabama and Louisiana is astounding and troubling.
Still, it took us realizing the American Dream of owning a house with a garden and treasuring a family pup for sago palms to catch my attention. One of the earliest familial battles in our new home was over a hedge of sago palms in our backyard that the wife treasured as a low-maintenance, ever-green, tropical-looking border but in which I only saw danger to our dog. My tooth-gnashing prevailed and, to some extent through an epic battle of woman against prickly mass-extinction survivor, my wife managed to move the plants to the front yard into which no pet of ours would ever venture without supervision on a leash. By now, the small plants have grown into sizable palms that likely no force could permanently remove.
Thankfully, I have to admit that we’ve not seen any evidence of harm to local mammals who seem to know how to avoid the plants, but that does not mean that it cannot happen. Experts warn that all parts of the sago palm are poisonous, with the seeds (nuts) being the most toxic to pets and more easily accessible for them to consume compared to the prickly fronds. Even a tiny amount of the plant can cause serious ill-effects, as it contains various toxic compounds that can lead to severe gastrointestinal upset, affect the nervous system, or damage the liver.
The sago palm, despite its name, is actually a cycad, not a palm. Its scientific name is Cycas Revoluta. The sago palm can grow in full sun or partial shade, with larger leaves developing in a shaded area. Sago palms are propagated from seeds and suckers taken from near the base of large plants. If the temperature drops below 15 degrees, the leaves will turn yellow and brown and eventually die. We have all seen this effect especially lately since short, severe cold spells early in the year are becoming the norm. Our own sagos are slated for shaving with the chainsaw this spring to remove the unsightly yellow and brown fronds. My hope is that we might destroy them completely, but if a comet that killed almost three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth couldn’t do it, I doubt the chainsaw will do much good either.
The Rapier House in the Oakleigh Garden Historic District uses a pair of sago palms to greet Government Street.
Once I started looking into the dangers that lurk in our backyards landscaping, I discovered many more that I, in my ignorance, was entirely unaware of. I am sure I am not alone. It struck me that five of the deadliest plants on the planet are thriving in my front yard. One day, for example, Jean McCullough, the office manager at Red Pest Solutions in Mobile and a PhD candidate at the University of Florida, introduced me to an oleander plant in her office. Oleander, or rosebay plant, is another extremely common, pretty and relatively easy to grow plant that many of us don’t realize is extremely toxic. Honestly, I had no idea, but I soon learned that even the smoke from these plants when included in a fire to roast food can have toxic effects.
A 2014 article in the “Journal of Prospective in Biology and Medicine” mentioned that Nerium oleander (the full official name of this plant) was historically used to induce hallucinations in the Pythia, the female priestess of Apollo in Ancient Greece, also known as the oracle of Delphi. That’s very interesting but also a bit of a red flag.
A common plant in Europe (from whence my wife hales), Nerium oleander is relatively new to the South. This plant is commonly used as an ornamental plant, as a freeway median divider and for beautifying parking lots. According to the National Library of Medicine, the sap of yellow oleander may cause blistering or dermatitis upon contact. For clinical diagnosis of poisoning, the plant’s cardiac glycosides are best identified by radioimmunoassay. Like many poisons, Nerium oleander can also be crucial to the pharmaceutical industry and is used for various medical purposes.
Add to the list of poisonous plants those we are more familiar with — poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac — and you’ve got a minefield of plants out to get you right in your own backyard! None, however, have the staying power of the prehistoric Sago.
Since it is impossible to clear the entire Gulf Coast region of sago palm — though some of us might try — it is important to at least keep areas in which kids and pets roam unsupervised free of these plants, and to arm ourselves with the knowledge about what is hiding in plain sight in our Southern backyards.
