The Palmetto Book

“To be in palmetto hammocks, coastal marshes, swamp forests, wet prairies, or revegetating cane breaks with Jono Miller is to walk into a world of wonder. His exuberance, intelligence, humor, and wisdom are as wild and awesome as the cabbage palm itself. If palmettos could talk, they would sound a lot like Jono.”—Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair

“Miller invites his readers on an engaging ramble from Charleston to Waccasassa Bay in a collection of beautifully illustrated and fully documented stories. Along the way, Miller shows us how these evocative native palms are woven into three centuries of southeastern tradition and history.”—Susan Cerulean, author of I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: A Daughter’s Memoir

“Written with passion and purpose, The Palmetto Book represents a lifetime of research and a model of scholarship. This book is about Florida, Floridians, and our relationship with a fascinating plant. Jono Miller is the Sunshine State’s palm whisperer.”—Gary R. Mormino, author of Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida

“The cabbage palm, the dowdy mophead of Florida flora, has suffered our collective neglect. Miller rights that wrong, recognizing these plants as wise and ancient elders of our landscape, salient in ecology, art, history, and culture.”—John Longino, University of Utah

“Naturalists love a good field trip and Jono Miller is no exception. Ride along on Miller’s many quests for answers to all things Sabal palmetto which take him through the sea islands of Georgia and the coastal Carolinas, through urban forests in at least six states, and all over the Florida peninsula into dense hammocks and wet prairies down to Key West.”—David A. Fox, University of Florida

“A love letter to the cabbage palm.”—Sarasota Magazine

“[The palmetto] is the subject of a multitude of myths and truths. Miller separates one from the other in this tome filled with research and emotion.”—Tampa Bay Magazine

“With a droll wit, Miller takes on the raging debate over the palmetto’s classification, longevity and desirability. . . . Miller takes us on field trips from Key West to the Panhandle and up the Atlantic coast onto Virginia in search of cabbage palms.”—The Gabber

“The narrative is lively and brings the author’s curiosity and natural history knowledge vividly to the reader.”—Choice