12. Chinese fan-palm
Livistona chinesis  Po Kwai (蒲葵)

The trunk is stout, cylindrical and made distinctive by rings of leaf scars left by many years of fallen leaves. Leaves are huge and spirally positioned in a dense cluster at the top of the trunk. Although each leaf is divided into many long, fine hanging tips from the flat undivided central portion, collectively each leaf often expands to 50 cm or more to look like a fan. The leaf stalks or petioles are long too and often spiny towards the base.

At only 0.4 cm long, the flowers of the fountain palm are tiny and while not showy are efficient and bisexual, giving rise to small, black, oval fruit.

Landscape garden designers love Chinese fan palm, for few parks would look complete without this garden icon.