Tree of the week: Windmill palm

Good morning, Curlin, and welcome to sunny Santa Anita. It is warm and dry in my corner of town, a perfect Saturday for the pumpkin patch. These are the small pleasures even a worldwide recession can't take away: watching a big horse race on TV, taking the kids to a neighborhood Halloween display. And, of course, reading Pieter Severynen's Tree of the Week with your Saturday morning coffee.

The Windmill Palm – Trachycarpus fortunei

If "cold hardy" is not the first characteristic one associates with the Windmill Palm in Southern California, it is because it just doesn’t get cold enough here. But see this tree standing snow-covered in Scotland or Alaska’s panhandle, or at 7,000 feet elevation and 10 degrees F in the central and southern mountains of its native China, and you realize this is no ordinary palm. It actually dislikes tropical heat and humidity.

The windmill palm grows at a moderate rate to up to 30 feet tall by 10 feet wide. The slender trunk is covered with a dense layer of black, burlap-like, fibrous leaf bases; with age this cover gradually drops off the lower trunk, thus making the ringed stem look thicker at the top than at the bottom. The tree looks best when massed, in part shade and with regular water in fertile soil, but it will take full sun, considerable drought and most soils. The 3 feet long petiole (leaf stalk) is toothed; the circular, fan shaped leaf consists of dozens of 3 feet long dark green leaflets, that are silvery below. Male and female flowers on bright yellow flower stalks occur in spring on separate trees. Round, half-inch blue fruit follows fertilized female flowers. 

This easy-to-grow but tough and long-lived tree has been cultivated for thousands of years in China and Japan. Its coarse but strong sheath fiber was used for making ropes and coarse cloth. The German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold brought it to Europe in 1830. It was spread worldwide from Kew Gardens in England. The genus name means "rough fruit," while the species was named after Robert Fortune, who saw the tree cultivated on the Chinese island of Zhoushan (another name for the tree is Chusan palm).

Thanks, Pieter.

Photo Credit: palms4u.com

Comments

[syscom3]

Ive always considered palm trees to be nothing more than telephone poles with some leaves on the top.

I would love to see this useless tree to be banned in California, and native tree's to be planted in its place.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Speaking of Zhoushan islands, the British, after having defeated China in the Firs Opium War, wanted Zhoushan, the prize of China's sea ports, but Captain Elliot negotiated from the Chinese Hong Kong instead, a fishing village nobody had heard of.

PM Palmerston was livid when he heard the news and sacked Elliot.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[LA-renter]

syscom3, I've been in LA for less than two years and already see the Windmill as a blight... A canary palm in good condition is impressive though.

[anonymousgal]

would Washingtonia filifera, the only California native palm tree, be acceptable to you? truth be told, i mostly loathe palms as well, although at least the ones in my yard (renting, can't pull them out) seem to be very drought-resistant.

[syscom3]

anonymousgal, as long as the palm tree stays in the desert area's.

It has no purpose being in urban and suburban locales.

[blonddude]

Hey monocot haters,

The California bioregion has three native palms:
* Washingtonia filifera - California Fan Palm-good examples outside of Hollywood High
* Washingtonia robusta -Mexican Fan Palm-the palms that are the q-tips of the gods AKA telephone poles.
* Brahea edulis - Guadaloupe Palm-very short Washingtonia type palms. The Huntington has some great specimens.

There are great, drought tolerant palms that will not cause the dreaded "telephone pole effect." Like any other plant, selection, placement and care have everything to do with the success of a landscape. Come on folks, open your minds and feel a frond or two...

[Ragnar]

I'll have to bring the windmill palm to Wisconsin. That would be sweet.

[Ragnar]

Oh yeah, I like the Pieter, Peter. My totally sweet chef father-in-law is from Germany and his name is also Pieter, so I guess I'm a little partial to the German spelling.