Trachycarpus fortunei

Growing to 12–20 m (39–66 ft) tall, Trachycarpus fortunei is a single stemmed fan palm. The diameter of the trunk is up to 15–30 cm (6–12 in). Its texture is very rough, with the persistent leaf bases clasping the stem as layers of coarse fibrous material. The leaves have long petioles which are bare except for two rows of small spines, terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. Each leaf is 140–190 cm (55–75 in) long, with the petiole 60–100 cm (24–39 in) long, and the leaflets up to 90 cm (35 in) 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 (0.079–0.157 in) across, borne in large branched panicles up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) 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 (0.39–0.47 in) long, ripening in mid-autumn. Occasionally a male plant of T. fortunei, besides the usual spadices, produces a few other spadices carrying really hermaphroditic flowers. Completely fertile, these 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.