Natural Lowcountry: Saw palmetto cuts a path across the Lowcountry

The saw palmetto you may have in your yard is one of only fourteen palms native to the United States.

The plant is a common landscape feature in the Lowcountry since it's low-maintenance and stays green throughout the winter.

It's also a widespread understory shrub in coastal oak and pine forests. On some sites, it spreads via rhizomes to form dense, tangled thickets. Elsewhere, for reasons unknown, it may be tree-like, growing as high as 25 feet.

Saw palmetto leaves are huge -- sometimes three feet across. Each leaf is composed of many small, stiff leaflets spread out like a fan. At the fan's base is a long stalk with tiny, sawlike teeth along the edges. The teeth give rise to the plant's common name.

In the summer, the palm produces clusters of fragrant, yellowish flowers. These are followed by reddish-black fruits -- food for deer, raccoons, foxes, and other animals.

The Seminole Indians ate the fruits and used them medicinally to treat inflammation, infertility, impotence, and respiratory infections. Colonial pioneers made the fruits into a beverage.

Even today, extracts of the plant are said to alleviate a variety of conditions, from bladder disorders to prostrate problems and hair loss.

But before you stock up on saw palmetto pills, check with your doctor. Medical researchers are still examining the extent to which saw palmetto remedies are safe or even effective.

As garden plants, however, saw palmettos are relatively indestructible shrubs that provide both food and shelter for wildlife.

And although they're slow-growing, some plants can attain remarkable ages -- reputedly 500 years or more.

Vicky McMillan, a retired biologist formerly at Colgate University, lives on Hilton Head Island.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Natural Lowcountry: Saw palmetto cuts a path across the Lowcountry."