Palms   Trachycarpus fortunei

Synonymy: T. wagnerianus Common Names: Chinese Windmill Palm Chusan Palm Distribution & Habitat: Mountainous regions of northern Myanmar to central China, often snow covered in winter. Description: A medium to large, lightly armed fan palm to about 10 m tall. It has dark green, unevenly divided leaves, split about half-way to the petiole. It isn't self cleaning, so the old, dead leaves can form a skirt around the top of the trunk Figure 2. T. fortunei in the courtyard of a Roman villa, Locarno, Italy. Figure 1. A very nice T. fortunei in Yorkshire, northern England, UK. General: Whilst this palms main claim to fame is its incredible resistance to cold it is also a very attractive palm in its own right. Culture: This palm prefers cooler, temperate areas, and altho it will grow in the sub-tropics, it will struggle in the tropics. It likes full sun, and moist well drained soil. The seeds are easy to germinate, and the seedlings are quite quick growers. One of the most cold tolerant palms there is. Figure 3. T. fortunei in Pullen Park, Raleigh, North Carolina. The pink tree behind is Redbuds (Cercis canadensis ) Figure 4. T. fortunei Figure 5. T. fortunei Figure 6. A 4 headed T. fortunei in Kunming Botanical Gardens. Contributed by: Neil King (Figure 1) Rolf Kyburz, K-Palms (Figure 2) Mike Papay (Figure 3,4&5) George Yao (Figure 6) For further information try Monocot Checklist Palm Web