Livistona chinensis

Syn. Latania chinensis

IUCN Red List Least Concern (LC)

Local name

Chinese Fan Palm, Fountain Palm (English)

Tree type

Evergreen Deciduous

Family: Arecaceae

12m

Indicated uses

Medicinal Edible Ornamental Avenue Other

Flowering & fruiting

Flowering Fruiting

Key characters

Bark

Trunk single, straight, brown to grey, rough and ringed with old leaf scars.

Leaves

Leaves are fan-shaped (costapalmate), about 1–1.8 m across, deeply divided into 50–90 segments whose long, ribbon-like tips droop downwards like a fountain; leaf stalks of young plants are spiny.

Flower

Inflorescences up to about 1.8 m long, branched, arising among the leaves; flowers small, white to yellowish, inconspicuous.

Fruit / Seeds

Fruits olive-shaped, about 1.5–2 cm long, blue-green ripening to bluish-black; one seed per fruit.

Did you know?

The drooping leaf tips give it the name “Fountain Palm”. Its fruits are spread by birds, so it easily self-seeds in gardens.

Distribution

S. Japan to China (Guangdong), Bangladesh, Bermuda, Florida, Hawaii, India, Mauritius, New Caledonia, Vietnam