Species
+

Trachycarpus fortunei (Hook.) H.Wendl.

Chinese Windmill Palm, Chinese fan palm, Chinese fan palm, Chinese windmill palm

Climate known 72 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Trachycarpus fortunei, also known as the Chusan palm, Chinese windmill palm, hemp palm, or simply windmill palm, is a species of hardy evergreen palm tree in the family Arecaceae, native to parts of China, Japan, Myanmar and India.

Text from Wikipedia, “Trachycarpus fortunei”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Trachycarpus

Trachycarpus, from Ancient Greek τραχύς (trakhús), meaning "rough", and καρπός (karpós), meaning "fruit", is a genus of ten species of palms native to Asia, from the Himalaya east to eastern China. They are fan palms, with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. The leaf bases produce persistent fibres that often give the trunk a characteristic hairy appearance. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Trachycarpus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Hook.) H.Wendl.
Native to
China South-Central, Myanmar
Wild records
50 in range· 12 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1407mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 240 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–32DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1407 mm a year, wettest June at 240 mm, driest December at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 32 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -3.8 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Chamaerops excelsa Mart.; Chamaerops fortunei Hook.; Trachycarpus caespitosus Becc.; Trachycarpus wagnerianus Becc.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1100 mm of 1407 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1407 mm a year, wettest June at 240 mm, driest December at 28 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1407 mm a year at the habitat, 1100 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 240 mm, driest December at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1067 mm to 2002 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 32 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 32 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 35).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -3.8 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.8 °C, the absolute minimum -14.3 °C, about 26 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.8 °C to 5.0 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is -3.8 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1407 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 49 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -14.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-14.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–32RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 49 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 4–1411 / 6–1515 / 11–1921 / 16–2425 / 21–2728 / 23–3030 / 25–3329 / 24–3226 / 20–3020 / 16–2616 / 11–2111 / 6–16
Night °C2 / -4–54 / -1–78 / 3–1113 / 8–1617 / 13–2020 / 16–2323 / 18–2522 / 18–2519 / 14–2214 / 10–178 / 4–114 / -2–7
Rain mm29 / 12–9040 / 19–11766 / 40–198129 / 73–246194 / 113–294240 / 143–330233 / 151–343180 / 130–332124 / 82–20390 / 58–12754 / 39–9128 / 14–54
DLI15 / 14–1916 / 15–2220 / 17–2525 / 22–3028 / 26–3229 / 26–3332 / 27–3531 / 27–3324 / 19–2919 / 14–2517 / 13–2116 / 12–19
RH %62 / 58–6662 / 59–6863 / 58–6763 / 58–6763 / 57–6664 / 60–6863 / 61–6763 / 62–6762 / 60–6962 / 58–7161 / 58–6861 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 49 grid cells holding the 49 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1236:5856 (28.175, 112.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -14.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 49 distinct grid cells holding the 49 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1236:5856 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_113.125, lapse-corrected -24 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 65 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Myanmar· introduced: Great Britain, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Japan, East Himalaya, West Himalaya, Vietnam
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.05, 109.41 · in the densest population, 36 records (72% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 50 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 12 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 425 km away. 364 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 50 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Trachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortuneiTrachycarpus fortunei

Photographs: (c) Fyodor Pudovikov, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Михаил Орлов, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Trachycarpus fortunei, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Palms tracking climate change
Gian‐Reto Walther, Emmanuel Gritti, Silje Berger, Thomas Hickler (2007) · Global Ecology and Biogeography
A method to promote sporulation in palm endophytic fungi
LD Guo, KD Hyde, Edward C. Y. Liew (1998)
A Novel Species of Pestalotiopsis Causing Leaf Spots of Trachycarpus Fortunei
Yanmin Zhang, Sajeewa S. N. Maharachchikumbura, Eric H. C. McKenzie, Kevin D. Hyde (2012) · Cryptogamie Mycologie
Detection of the mycoplasma‐like organism associated with lethal yellowing disease of palms in Florida by polymerase chain reaction
N. A. Harrison, Patricia A. Richardson, Jason Kramer, James H. Tsai (1994) · Plant Pathology
Tensile strength of windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) fiber bundles and its structural implications
Shengcheng Zhai, Dagang Li, Biao Pan, Junji Sugiyama (2011) · Journal of Materials Science
Studies on the constituents of plamae plants. I. The constituents of Trachycarpus fortunei (Hook.) H. Wendl. 1.
Yasuaki Hirai, Shuichi Sanada, Yoshiteru Ida, JUNZO SHOJI (1984) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Characterization of Anti-bacterial Compounds from the Seed Coat of Chinese Windmill Palm Tree (Trachycarpus fortunei)
Shakeel Ahmed, Huimin Liu, Aqeel Ahmad, Waheed Akram (2017) · Frontiers in Microbiology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.