Zong Lu Pi

Zong Lu Pi is the dried fibrous leaf-sheath bark of Trachycarpus fortunei (Arecaceae), the windmill palm, an evergreen palm 4–12 m tall native to central and southern China and widely cultivated. The slender, unbranched trunk is densely cloaked in a coarse brown matting of persistent fibrous leaf-base sheaths from which the medicine is taken. Leaves are clustered at the crown; petioles 50–100 cm long, often armed with marginal teeth, support large fan-shaped (palmate) blades 50–90 cm across divided nearly to the base into many narrow stiff segments. Inflorescences are large, much-branched panicles bearing many small yellow flowers, and the small reniform, blue-black drupes follow. The medicinal fibre is brown, tough and coarsely matted.