Difference between revisions of "Trachycarpus fortunei"
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[[Image:Chusan Palm in snow.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Chusan Palm in snow, 55°N latitude, Northumberland, UK]] | [[Image:Chusan Palm in snow.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Chusan Palm in snow, 55°N latitude, Northumberland, UK]] | ||
| + | [[Image:Trachywaggiekyle.jpg|thumb|250px|Specimen of 'Wagnerianus', Balboa Park, San Diego, CA]] | ||
[[Category:TRACHYCARPUS|fortunei]] | [[Category:TRACHYCARPUS|fortunei]] | ||
Revision as of 05:41, 31 January 2010
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Trachycarpus wagnerianus Trachycarpus excelsus | ||||||||
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Habitat and Distribution
Native to southern and central China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang), often in mountains at up to 2,400 m altitude, where the climate is cool and wet in summer, cold and often snowy in winter. The exact natural distribution is uncertain due to extensive cultivation for fibre products; some sources suggest it may also be native in southern Japan but it is more likely introduced and naturalised there.
Description
Single-trunked, palmate palm to 10 m (rarely 13 m) tall. The trunk is 15 - 30 cm diameter, often with a slightly wider base, and usually remains covered in dense fibre from the leaf bases; rarely this is shed on very old specimens leaving the trunks smooth.
Rounded crown of dark green leaves 1-2 m long, with 30-50 leaflets, these 60-80 cm long and 2.5-4 cm wide, arranged in a tight fan at the end of a 60-100 cm petiole. Unlike the closely related genus Chamaerops, the leaf petioles are not spiny.
The species is dioecious, with separate male and female trees. The fruit is dark purple-blue when ripe, round, about 1 cm diameter, with a single seed. They are produced on densely branched panicles.
Cultivation
Trachycarpus fortunei is notable as the hardiest palm known, tolerating winter temperatures below -20°C, and also tolerant of cool summer temperatures in oceanic climates such as Scotland and even the Faroe Islands at 62°N latitude, making it the northernmost palm outdoors anywhere in the world. Some planted in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) are known to have survived a temperature of -27.5°C, the coldest temperature reported to have been survived by any palm. It is tolerant of heavy snow cover.
A semi-dwarf cultivar group 'Wagnerianus' has been selected in Japan; it differs in smaller leaves with stiffer leaflets 20-30 cm long, and a trunk just 15 cm diameter. Because of its small size, it is more tolerant of windy sites than normal plants. It has often been treated in popular literature as a separate species"Trachycarpus wagnerianus", but does not differ botanically from typical Trachycarpus fortunei.
Trachycarpus fortunei is by far the commonest species of Trachycarpus in cultivation, though other species are slowly becoming more widely available. It is also by far the commonest palm generally in cultivation in Europe. It is showing some signs of becoming an invasive weed in northern Italy.
Popular nicknames for the Chusan Palm include "Trachy" for the species, and "Waggie" for 'Wagnerianus'. It is also sometimes called Windmill Palm.
Photo gallery
