Trachycarpus fortunei
Common name: 
Chinese Windmill Palm
Windmill Palm
Pronunciation: 
trak-ee-KAR-pus for-TOO-nee-eye
Family: 
Arecaceae (Palmae)
Genus: 
Trachycarpus
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Broadleaf evergreen tree, a palm, may grow to 30 ft (~9 m) tall, but usually shorter, trunk about 10 cm in diameter, usually narrowest at the base, clothed in loose, stringy, brown-black fibers from disintegrating leaf sheaths.   Leaves circular, fan-shaped, about 1.25 m across, deeply incised and pleated, with 40-50 segments, ends drooping; petiole 1 m long, margin sharply serrated to only rough and bumpy.  Flowers yellow.  Fruits rounded, about 1 cm, black, covered with a white bloom.
  • Sun to partial shade; grows in many soils except wet, tolerant to drought, wind and salt.   Small plants can be grown inside in indirect bright light.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone (6)7.     Native to northern Myanmar (Burma) and central and eastern China.
  • Oregon State Univ. campus: east side of Ocean Administration, 26th and Arnold Way.
Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • young leaf

    young leaf

  • leaf and trunk

    leaf and trunk

  • old leaf

    old leaf

  • expanding flower clusters

    expanding flower clusters

  • expanding flower cluster

    explanding flower cluster

  • mature flower cluster and flowers

    mature flower cluster and flowers

  • immature fruit clusters

    immature fruit clusters

  • developing fruit

    developing fruit

  • mature fruit

    mature fruit

  • trunk

    trunk