A Nepalese population in the wild of and in cultivation

rachycarpus is a artin ibbons weeks at a time on -hunting of nine of fan palm. M G expeditions. Their reports are T In the wild they grow in a and Toby Spanner fascinating and provided valuable band along the lower clues on our subsequent searches from north , then eastwards have seen the in the same areas. through , northeast India, majority of species in Burma, China, and then down The species to north Thailand and into the wild, giving them Seed shape provides a natural north Vietnam. a privileged insight subdivision of the genus. The All species are single-stemmed, following have reniform (kidney- dioecious, and small or medium- into how to grow shaped) seeds: T. fortunei, sized compared to other palms. these palms T. geminisectus, T. nanus, T. oreophilus, Their chief attraction for gardeners T. princeps, T. takil, T. ukhrulensis and and palm enthusiasts is their cold Nepal and Burma were British T. wagnerianus. The other two hardiness and ease and speed of colonies and it was common for species have ovoid, grooved seeds growth. Some of the new species army officers stationed there to (shaped rather like a coffee bean): could even be described as beautiful. study the local fauna and flora. T. latisectus and T. martianus. In this The genus for the most part is They would disappear into the hills account the species are dealt with historically well-documented. India, with a party of 20 or 30 locals for alphabetically.

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Trachycarpus fortunei planted in temperate and warm- This, the most familiar species, temperate countries worldwide. Its was introduced into Europe cold hardiness is legendary and, like (Holland) from Japan in 1830, other Trachycarpus, it does not need and subsequently into England. summer heat to grow well, as do so However, the most famous many other cold-hardy palms. The introductions to the UK were by main enemy is high winds which Robert Fortune some 20 years later. will soon damage the . In a He had seen the palm in China and sheltered spot, or in less windy sent some seeds back from the island climates, they look their best and of Chusan (now Zhoushan) off the are an easy way of bringing a tropical east coast. These seeds would have look to the temperate garden. been from cultivated trees. The The seeds germinate without Chusan palm’s hardiness was not bottom heat in 8–12 weeks and realized for a long time and indeed seedling growth is comparatively the first specimen was grown for fast. Grow them in tubs or, better, many years in the Palm House at plant them out in a wind-free spot Kew because it was considered when the roots fill an 20 or 25cm pot. tropical. They appreciate a rich soil, plenty of The Chusan palm is considered fertilizer, and additional water to be a native of central and eastern especially in dry areas or seasons. China, but has been so widely This can make a huge difference to cultivated there for thousands of the speed at which they grow. years, that its precise origins have In favoured localities, with regular been obscured. It is possible that watering, the Chusan palm can no truly wild trees exist anymore. produce 30cm of trunk a year and is well known for its hardiness

Its popularity in China is due to the reports of twice this growth rate are Spanner Martin Gibbons and Toby by All photographs usefulness of the trunk fibres which probably not exaggerated. are cut from the tree and used for Interestingly, growth is fastest at temperate garden. Additionally, a variety of purposes. We have seen night, and in hot climates T. fortunei it is incredibly beautiful – neat, tidy, brushes, brooms and doormats, tends to sulk in the summer, waiting upright and jaunty. even a crude kind of rain cape, for cooler weather in which to grow. Although there is speculation as to uncomfortably heavy when wet, The only maintenance it requires is whether Wagner’s palm might still but still commonly seen in perhaps an annual removal of dead exist in the wild somewhere, in Japan country districts. leaves which, if left in place, can perhaps, hidden on some remote The tree is so well known it hardly form a ‘skirt’ in the manner of mountain top, curiously it has never needs any description. Suffice it to Washingtonia palms. been found. If wild populations ever say that it has a trunk to about 25cm What has previously been referred existed they are probably extinct. in diameter, reaching 10–12m in to as T. wagnerianus is now regarded The original introductions to the height, covered (outside of China as a synonym of T. fortunei. However, West arrived in Italy in the early anyway) with fibrous old bases. Wagner’s palm is quite distinctive in 1900s. This was when a Mr Winter The crown is around 1m in diameter appearance and does need to be bought the entire stock imported and bears dark green, fan-shaped distinguished for horticultural from Japan by the German leaves, usually glaucous beneath, purposes. Indeed, it is unmistakable, horticulturist Albert Wagner, after each with 40–50 very irregularly split especially when young. It has small, whom the species was named. segments. The flowers are yellow stiff leaves, less than 75cm across, Slow-growing and with irregular and on female trees produce the leaf segments edged with white shaped leaves when young, after 3 to hundreds of seeds, blue-black with a woolly fibres. The leaves are so stiff 4 years Wagner’s palm explodes into white bloom, which hang down in that even strong winds have no effect growth and beauty. If given rich soil bunches like tiny deformed grapes. on them. Thus it is the most suitable and watering it can double its size Trachycarpus fortunei is widely palm for windy sites in the every year for a few years, ➤

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Trachycarpus latisectus Only described in 1997, the Windamere palm is almost extinct in the wild. It was named for the Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling, India, where two grow at a side entrance. The name refers to the broad leaf segments, one of its distinguishing characteristics. These are around 5cm wide, very glossy, and of which there are around 70 in total, forming a very large and leathery leaf. It has a bare trunk and its seeds resemble those of T. martianus, though slightly larger. It remains in the wild in just one tiny, heavily degraded location in the Sikkim Himalayas in northeast India. This population is immediately threatened with destruction, but it is cultivated in the From Vietnam and adjacent China, Trachycarpus Highly endangered in the wild, Trachycarpus geminisectus is a low-altitude species towns of Kalimpong and Darjeeling. latisectus is confined to one small population In cultivation outside of India it eventually reaching 3–6m in height, has made quite an impression with but well-drained soil. Young and always retaining those small, palm enthusiasts. It is the only are best grown under some shade. unique leaves. Just as hardy and as species in the genus which, owing to easy to cultivate as T. fortunei, the its wide altitude range of 1,200– Trachycarpus martianus added benefit of wind resistance will 2,400m, will adapt well to hotter This species is held in a few botanic ensure its popularity, now that it is regions. As with other Trachycarpus, gardens and private collections. The more widely available. T. latisectus excels in a rich, loamy identifying characteristics are the

Trachycarpus geminisectus This is the only Trachycarpus to grow in Vietnam. It was discovered in 2003 in Ha Giang province, close to the Chinese border, across which it apparently also grows. It is almost certainly at the easternmost end of the range of the genus and grows at lower altitude than most. It is shorter than other species and its leaf segments are fused along their length into pairs, hence the name, meaning ‘twin segments’. The seedling leaves are very tough and leathery and in this respect are quite distinctive. Cultivation experience is limited but young plants grow well and its needs seem to be as for other Trachycarpus. Low-growing and virtually trunkless, Trachycarpus nanus is threatened by goats in its native habitat

102 June 2013 PlantsmanThe very regular splits in the leaves, the provides a tasty morsel for these leaf segments numbering 65 to 75, pests. This prevents the plants from occasionally up to 80, the bare trunk reproducing because they never and, of course, the seed shape. grow above the danger level. It is distributed in two far apart This interesting small palm areas, one along the Himalayas in remained in almost total obscurity Nepal and into Sikkim, and one in from 1887, when it was first reported Meghalaya province and further east by Pierre Delavay, until 1992 when in India. These areas are separated we mounted a special expedition to by several hundred kilometres of relocate it. Seeds have since come tropical lowlands in Assam. At one out of China and it is now in time the two populations were cultivation in Europe and the US. thought to be separate species. It is a pretty species, with deeply The eastern population was cut, sometimes green, sometimes originally described as T. khasyanus, blue leaves, their segments number­ but, though there are some subtle ing not more than 30. Growing at differences, they seem basically the 1,800–2,300m, it is very hardy to same. The Nepal population grows cold and a perfect small palm for the at higher altitude and appears to be temperate garden. However, it is a little hardier. slow and initially somewhat more They are rather beautiful palms; difficult than most other members Restricted to one mountain range in Thailand, slim, elegant, with neat crowns of of the genus. It requires a well- Trachycarpus oreophilus is humidity-loving fine, fan-shaped leaves. As with drained, heavy soil and a position in T. oreophilus, the places where they full sun to look its best. have a compact, broader-than-deep, choose to grow in the wild are rather hemispherical crown, and the leaves exposed and windy. Cultivated Trachycarpus oreophilus regularly split into 60 or more plants look quite different and The only species to occur in Thailand segments. The leaves, too, shed would sometimes hardly seem to is the Thai mountain fan palm. It quickly on dying. be the same species. grows on one mountain range, Doi So far, with the possible exception T. martianus was initially reported Chiang Dao, in the northwest of the of T. nanus, it has proven to be the as growing on limestone hills, but we country near Chiang Mai. It may slowest of all species in cultivation, have actually found them growing on also occur across the border in taking several years to put out its highly acidic soils. This may be why Burma. The area where it grows at first divided leaf, though perhaps it they are sometimes regarded as 1,700–2,150m is almost continually will speed up once established. A difficult to grow. Frustrated covered by cloud and mist; the rich but well-drained soil is enthusiasts should maybe change the specific epithet means cloud-loving. recommended. pH of their soil and try again. Young This cool, rather damp habitat plants enjoy cool, humid conditions makes it a contender for humid Trachycarpus princeps out of full sun. temperate or subtropical gardens. The Stone Gate palm grows on the Most of the accessible trees have Salween River near to where the Trachycarpus nanus long since been cut down for building border of China (including Tibet) This is the only species not to grow purposes, though there are several meets Burma. It is named after the an above-ground trunk, except hundred growing on exposed ridges translation of Shi Men Guan, the rarely, and then only to 30cm or so. and sheer rock faces. The mountain gorge where it grows. This part of Native to Yunnan in China, it is peaks where they grow are exposed China is closed to foreigners and under threat in the wild due to and windy, resulting in much damage politically something of a hot-spot. degradation of habitat and predation to the leaves. Those in cultivation In 1994 we undertook an exciting by domestic goats which roam have a much more tidy appearance. trip to find this palm. throughout this small plant’s entire Wild trees have a slender, bare We hitch-hiked west from range. While the leaves are too trunk, caused by the very short, Kunming as far as the Mekong River tough to eat, the young inflorescence fibrous leaf-bases soon falling. They which we crossed by a footbridge. ➤

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Ahead of us lay a mountain range back to Kunming. Back in Europe, exceeding 4,000m. Since there we had to wait a whole year while our appeared to be no road crossing it we official application was considered. had no alternative but to climb it, in On payment of $2,000 for ‘logistical the company of three Chinese support’ we were allowed up there peasants who offered to guide us, for again, in the company of a Chinese a fee which increased with altitude. professor and an official interpreter. We began with much enthusiasm Finally, we found our palm. and energy, losing both after we had Perhaps the most beautiful of the been going for a few hours. genus, the underside of the leaves of That first night we slept, exhausted, T. princeps is covered with a silver- in a hovel surrounded by a sea of mud white waxy substance, thick enough in which cows, goats and children to be scratched off with a finger nail. were slithering. The next day we This easily differentiates it from its continued up through different zones: closest relatives. It grows in an area a thicket of dense bamboo, a forest of incredible natural beauty in a deep of Rhododendron trees on mossy gorge on the north-facing cliffs of a ground, a beautiful wetland area with 300m-high divide in the mountain stunted, bonsai-like conifers, and a range, which the Salween River has broad zone strewn with rocks the cut out of the limestone over the size of small cars. A second night in millennia. another hovel, an early start and we Despite the difficult location, headed again towards the summit. some seeds have come out and young Emerging above the tree line we plants are occasionally available from came onto a grassy meadow, in specialist nurseries. Its cultivation which were growing thousands of requirements seem to be the same gentians of the most intense blue. By as for others in the genus, but it is the time we actually reached the slower and more difficult to grow. summit, at 3,900m, we were so tired we were almost hallucinating. It really was the most physically Rare and only recently in cultivation, Trachycarpus princeps grows on steep cliffs high exerting thing either of us had ever the Kumaon fan palm has been the above the Salween River in China attempted. Down the other side subject of much confusion over the then, our legs feeling like rubber. years. It required a special expedition Ireland to nurserymen. There are no That night, we finally we made it to India by us in 2005 to solve the records of what happened to them, to the valley bottom, crossed the mystery. We found that the small, and there do not seem to be any Salween River by footbridge and nearly extinct, wild populations are survivors remaining today. sneaked into a small town. Our found in Kumaon division in It was the Italian botanist attempts to maintain a low profile , central north India, Odoardo Beccari who realized it was proved useless, we were soon where it grows at altitudes of 1,800– a new species and named it T. takil surrounded by the entire population, 2,400m or more, suffering frost and (from the Indian mountain on which most of whom had never seen a snowfall in the winter. It is probable it grows). Madden’s accounts tell us European before. So remote was this that they also grow across the border that 150 years ago there were huge town that the police officer there did in extreme western Nepal, closed, numbers of mature trees up to 12m not realize that we were seriously alas, to the independent traveller. in height in the wild. Now, most off-limits and the next day, simply Trachycarpus takil was discovered have been cut down, apparently for helped us on our way. At that point in the 1850s by Major Madden of the trunk fibres. However, small though, our luck ran out. A further the British army, who took it to be numbers of seeds from the dwindling 65km up the road, so close to our T. martianus. He sent seeds and wild populations are now finding goal, we were arrested for real and plants to London, from where they their way into cultivation. sent, with a police escort, all the way were distributed around the UK and It is a handsome tree, with broad,

104 June 2013 PlantsmanThe grass-green, fan-shaped leaves with from the top [of the cliffs]’, he wrote, further study is undertaken in its of up to 60 segments, atop a solitary ‘besides a close-up of the palm trees, very remote habitat, or perhaps trunk, clothed with tightly clasping which were almost the only trees from cultivated plants. fibres. These eventually abscise growing on the naked sandstone. They naturally, leaving a bare trunk. grew isolated or in small clumps and Conservation We hope this species will gain rows, stiffly, often leaning far over One of the significant things about popularity as it becomes more widely the edge, and had a curiously several species of Trachycarpus that available. It is likely to be the unfinished appearance, as though we have studied in the wild is the hardiest in the genus but experience they had been left over and forgotten small size of their populations, in from cultivation is still very limited. from an earlier geological age’. terms of both area and numbers. All It is a very attractive plant, with the species, apart from T. fortunei, are Trachycarpus ukhrulensis waxy, white, leaf undersides. It more or less seriously threatened, Described as recently as 2006, this successfully made its debut in some close to extinction in the wild. species is from Manipur in extreme cultivation a few years ago through It is not unlikely that some will only northeast India. Also occurring in seeds distributed as T. sp. “Manipur” survive in cultivation. the mountains of Nagaland and or T. sp. “Naga Hills”. Botanically, , T. oreophilus, neighbouring Burma, it is likely to be however, there seem to be no T. princeps and T. takil all grow in very the same palm that Frank Kingdon meaningful differences from small populations, or in areas that Ward wrote about in Plant Hunter in T. oreophilus, and it is most likely just could so easily be missed were they Manipur (1952): ‘I had hoped to get a local form or perhaps variety of it. not known about. While this may be an uninterrupted view into Burma This question will have to wait until frustrating, it also has an exciting aspect to it. There may well be several more species just waiting to be discovered, even in areas apparently well documented. Since we became interested in this genus we have discovered four new species along the ‘Trachycarpus trail’, who knows where it may lead next?

Conclusion Interest in exotic gardening shows no sign of abating. Trachycarpus are one of the most useful and dramatic plants that can be planted to create the effect, so much so that they could even be called ‘essential’. The more obscure species are only slowly becoming available and it is hoped that they will take their place when they are more widely known.

Martin Gibbons owns The Palm Centre nursery in Richmond, Surrey, where he holds a National Plant Collection of Trachycarpus. Toby Spanner runs rarepalmseeds. com in Munich, Germany. Together they have spent 20 years From northern India, Trachycarpus takil might be studying Trachycarpus, visiting all the hardiest of the genus the species in habitat.

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