Zong Lu

Trachycarpus fortunei, the Chinese windmill palm, is a slow-growing evergreen fan palm native to central and eastern China. It typically reaches 9-12 meters in height, with a single slender trunk covered in dense, coarse, fibrous matting formed from the persistent leaf bases. The leaves are palmate, 50-90 cm wide, divided into numerous narrow segments, and borne on petioles up to 1.5 meters long with toothed margins. The species is dioecious, producing branched panicles of small yellow flowers in spring, followed on female plants by clusters of small, kidney-shaped, blue-black drupes. In TCM, the carbonized leaf petiole base (Zong Lu Tan) and the fruits (Zong Lu Zi) are used as astringents.