It grows to 15 m tall on a single stem up to 20-35 cm diameter. The trunk is very rough with the persistent leaf bases clasping the stem as layers of coarse fibrous material. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae subfamily Coryphoideae, tribe Livistoneae, subtribe Rhapidinae), with the leaves with the long petiole bare except for two rows of small spines, terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets; each leaf is 140-190 cm long, with the petiole 60-100 cm long, and the leaflets up to 90 cm long. It is a somewhat variable plant, especially as regards its general appearance and some specimens are to be seen with leaf segments having straight and others having drooping tips. The flowers are yellow (male) and greenish (female), about 2-4 mm across, borne in large branched panicles up to 1 m long in spring; it is dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate trees. The fruit is a yellow to blue-black, reniform (kidney-shaped) drupe 10–12 mm long, ripening in mid autumn. Occasionally it occurs that a male plant of T. fortunei besides the usual spadices produces also a few other spadices which carry really hermaphroditic flowers. The hermaphroditic and completely fertile flowers are almost exactly like the male flowers, but are a little larger and with the carpels well evolute, the latter about as long as the filaments, furnished with a ring of silvery hairs all round.
Trachycarpus fortunei has been cultivated in China and Japan for thousands of years, grown for its coarse but very strong leaf sheath fibre, used for making ropes, sacks, and other coarse cloth where great strength is important. The extent of this cultivation means that the exact natural range of the species is uncertain. The Windmill Palm can handle cold, even snow for a short period of time. Its tolerance of cool summers makes it highly valued by palm enthusiasts as the palm that can be cultivated the furthest north in the world, being grown successfully in such cool and damp but relatively winter-mild locales as Scotland and the panhandle of Alaska.
Hand-like Palm Tree
Hand-like Palm Tree - January 05, 2010
Hand-like Palm Tree
Hand-like Palm Tree - January 05, 2010
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