{"id":373539,"date":"2026-08-17T10:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373539\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:10:16","slug":"can-you-pick-palmetto-berries-in-florida-heres-what-the-law-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373539\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you pick palmetto berries in Florida? Here\u2019s what the law says"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The end of summer marks the beginning of saw palmetto season, where the plant is in full bloom and the berries are plentiful.<\/p>\n

However, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s OK for you to start gathering them.<\/p>\n

These plants are considered endangered, and state statutes<\/a> explicitly prohibit anyone from purposefully destroying, harvesting or selling them \u2014 whether on public lands or someone else\u2019s private property.<\/p>\n

Instead, Florida law requires residents to have a permit to harvest saw palmetto berries<\/a> on privately-owned land, potentially including your own.<\/p>\n

That said, the law carves out an exception for people who who legally harvest or handle saw palmetto berries from up to two plants on their property for home or personal use. Just be sure not to sell or trade them without a permit.<\/p>\n

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd issued a reminder about this law<\/a> last week when he discussed a recent arrest involving a man accused of harvesting these berries.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Sheriff Grady Judd discusses saw palmetto berry arrest]<\/p>\n

That man \u2014 identified as Rodney Michael, 55 \u2014 was reported driving his truck through a wooded area on the campus of Warner University, Judd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hid his truck in the woods,\u201d Judd explained. \u201cNow, as you know, in this day and age, that\u2019s shows red lights all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, law enforcement found no one in the truck, though it was \u201cfull of saw palmetto berries,\u201d Judd added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our buddy here walks up and said, \u2018That\u2019s my momma\u2019s truck,\u2019\u201d Judd continued.<\/p>\n

However, Michael admitted to driving the truck there, thus being in possession of the palmetto berries, Judd said.<\/p>\n

Now, he faces charges of trespassing, grand theft, dumping property without a permit, and harvesting palmetto berries without permission. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, you can find more information on how to obtain a permit to harvest saw palmetto berries by visiting the FDACS website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The end of summer marks the beginning of saw palmetto season, where the plant is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[265,6919,28,30,29,575,1911],"class_list":["post-373539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime","tag-features","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food","tag-polk-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}