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Fascinating Herbs > Saw Palmetto
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Saw Palmetto
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Saw Palmetto Research
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Care and Cultivation
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The Saw Palmetto Family
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Saw Palmetto was known as a beneficial herb to
the indigenous population of Central and South America. In the southern
states of the USA, the fruit was used as a source of nutrition. It was
also used as a tonic after illness, an effect observed among wild
animals in Florida, which lost weight as a result of the lack of
available foodstuffs during the hot summer months and then thrived
after eating the ripe Saw Palmetto fruit during the autumn
The old botanical name of sabal was the more commonly used South
American name for the plant. The Latin word, serrulata means "little
saw" and refers to the sharp-edged leaves.
The dwarf palm grows from a creeping rhizome. Its leafstalks are
between 1 and 1.5 metres in length and have a jagged edge from which
the sharply-edged leaves fan out in segments of 18 and 24 leaves. The
individual deep purple to black berries are about the size of olives,
which taste sweet at first but leave a bitter after taste.
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