It looks very nice! Hopefully this winter will be mild and short so everything can start growing again!!

-Alex

Very interesting that the leaves go almost in a complete circle.

Mike, before your posting, I never considered this palm anything other than a typical T. fortunei. I've been doing a little research and it seems that it's a bit more complicated. Not only do Trachys show some variation within the species but there are also some fortunei/wagnerianus hybrids. The leaves on mine seem much broader (more whole) and not as deeply divided--more like Chinese fans. Maybe cultural factors and age also are involved. Great, now I can expand into hybrids.

NO matter what it is its very nice. garry tsen has some fortunei with simiular leaves.

technically speaking, a fortunei x wagnerianus would not be a hybrid as they are considered the same species. There is a tremendous amount of variation in this species (obviously) with many different leaf forms.

No doubt it has more compact leaves than say,a typical Fortunei might
(if there is any such thing as a typical Fortunei!),however for the most part FortxWag or Takagii have stiffer leaves.

"technically speaking, a fortunei x wagnerianus would not be a hybrid as they are considered the same species"

They belong to the same genus (Trachycarpus) but aren't fortunei and wagnerianus two different species, if so, a fortunei x waggie would be a 'hybrid'. No?

Wagnerianus has never been discovered anywhere in the "wild",no one is sure of it's
origin but it is thought to have been developed in Korea/Japan from Fortunei for compact leaves.

Every once in a while Fortunei will produce a Waggy like palm.

Wagnerianus is quite a mystery.

Kew gardens and the World Checklist of plants (headed in part of palm expert John Dransfield) has decided T wagnerianus is just a form of fortunei- floral morphology is identical. I always find it hard to believe something that looks so different from something else could be the same species, particularly when there are so many plant groups out there in which the subtleties of the species concept are based solely on things like geographic location, as all other characteristics are the same. Used to be when I was young species was a group of individuals you could not interbreed with another group and get offspring that were fertile.. that certainly does not hold true in the plant world by a long shot. Some day it will all come down to DNA but that is a ways off before they fully characterize ALL living things that way. And still, where does one draw the line between variabilitly and separate species, even with DNA analysis? Guess it's just up to the experts to decide. Only problem is 'expert' is a variable term, too, and so many disagree with each other that it all seems somewhat random. In 5 years T wagnerianus will be its own species again... and in 5 more, NOT... etc.

Thanks for the clarification. Trachys are a really interesting genus. With all this variation between species and within any given species, it must mean that they are still diversifying and readily to fill new niches--hopeful including more of our backyards!

I believe Trachycarpus is the east Asian counterpart to the European Chamaerops (another "cold" tolerant temperate genus that is likewise highly diverse within the "species" humilis.

By the way, do you know of a good source for info on varieties of Trachycarpus fortune (Taylor...Greensboro...etc.) and species identification? Thanks in advance.