[Serenoa]

Originally Posted by Lovey2

Glad I stopped in. All this time I was thinking they were cabbage palms, which we ALWAYS trimmed up. I'll take a better look when I'm next out and maybe stop feeling they look a little ca-ca. Thanks...

You are correct, the vast majority of the palms along TV thoroughfares ARE sabal palmettos, or, as you say they are sometimes called cabbage palms. To my knowledge there is no palm species known as "bearded palm".

Originally Posted by Indydealmaker

Those are called Bearded Palms. Leaving the brown "beards" hanging there is supposed to make the Palm tree more stable in high winds.

Sorry, but that makes NO sense. Leaving the dead skirt, or "beard" on the sabal palm or any other palm would only result in an increased surface area to catch additional wind, thereby making the palm LESS stable in high winds. That's why, when a hurricane is known to be on the way, many palms will be "hurricane cut" by removing all but the very top two or three fronds so the high winds won't bend the trunks, or worse yet totally uproot the tree. The skirts left on palms in TV are simply the developer not wanting to spend the money for the continual pruning/trimming. Personally, I prefer the dead skirts instead of the over-pruned palms that are left looking like pineapples.