[9] It can also be found alongside Cuba's northern coast (from Havana to Matanzas),[10] the Turks and Caicos, the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, and the Bahamas.

[10][11][12] The species is hardy to the US Department of Agriculture's zone 8a, and has been reported to have some cold hardness down to 8.6 °F or −13.0 °C, but needs hot and humid summers to grow well.

[13] Sabal palmetto[14] is a popular landscape plant in the subtropical climates of the Gulf and south Atlantic states, mostly from southeast Virginia to coastal Texas.

Sabal palm is used extensively around beach and resort areas along the lower East Coast because of its tolerance of salt spray and drought.

A long term specimen (covered with frost cloth in winter) grows in favorable microclimate (zone 7a/b) in Bridgeport CT since 2009.

The cabbage palm is remarkably resistant to fire, floods, coastal conditions, cold, high winds, and drought.

[15] Despite this, recent mortality has been caused by Texas phoenix palm decline, a phytoplasma currently found on the west coast of Florida.

This cultivar has unusually thick and leathery, largely fused leaflets that give the palm a unique and appealing appearance.

Over 60% of the seedlings have the same leaf characteristics as the parent plant and Sabal palmetto 'Lisa' has been popularized in the nursery trade in Florida over the last 20 years and proven to be as resistant to heat, wind, cold, drought, and neglect as the common form while keeping its shape.

On June 28, 1776, Charleston patriots under William Moultrie made a fort of palmetto trunks and from it defended successfully against the British in the Revolutionary War.