Palm in peril. (Sabal palm trees)

Something is killing the stately Sabal palm, Florida's state tree. Could it be literally drowning?

FOR UNTOLD CENTURIES, the Sabal palm tree has thrived along what is now Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Native Americans are believed to have relied on the hardy palm for both food and shelter almost 10,000 years before the first European explorers arrived.

Since no artist's rendering of the southland's tropical shores would be complete without tall Sabal palms bending in the breeze, they have become universally synonymous with the Florida landscape. The Sabal's…