Species
+

Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R.Br. ex Mart.

Chinese Fan Palm, Chinese fan palm, Chinese fan palm, Fountain palm, Chinese fountain palm

Climate known 69 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Livistona chinensis, the Chinese fan palm or fountain palm, is a species of subtropical palm tree of east Asia. It is native to southern Japan, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, southeastern China and Hainan. In Japan, two notable populations occupy islands near the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture, Aoshima and Tsuki Shima. It is also reportedly naturalized in South Africa, Mauritius, Réunion, the Andaman Islands, Java, New Caledonia, Micronesia, Hawaii, Florida, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Text from Wikipedia, “Livistona chinensis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Livistona

Livistona is a genus of palms, the botanical family Arecaceae, native to southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets.

Text from Wikipedia, “Livistona”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) R.Br. ex Mart.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Japan +2
Wild records
312 in range· 83 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jul, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2302mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 352 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Livistona, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2302 mm a year, wettest June at 352 mm, driest December at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 6.8 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Chamaerops biroo Siebold ex Mart.; Corypha robusta H.Wendl.; Corypha robusta H.Wendl. ex Devansaye; Latania borbonica hort.; Latania borbonica hort. ex W.Watson, 1886 and 14 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Livistona, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1659 mm of 2302 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.1 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2302 mm a year, wettest June at 352 mm, driest December at 57 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2302 mm a year at the habitat, 1659 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 352 mm, driest December at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1603 mm to 3195 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 6.8 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.8 °C, the absolute minimum 2.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.2 °C to 17.9 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 6.8 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Livistona, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jul; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2302 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 151 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–37RH 57–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 151 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 12–2019 / 12–2121 / 15–2324 / 19–2626 / 22–2828 / 25–3029 / 28–3129 / 28–3128 / 26–2926 / 23–2823 / 19–2419 / 14–21
Night °C13 / 7–1814 / 8–1817 / 11–2020 / 15–2223 / 19–2425 / 22–2626 / 25–2726 / 24–2725 / 22–2622 / 18–2418 / 14–2214 / 10–19
Rain mm72 / 22–203110 / 49–206153 / 70–237185 / 122–244274 / 189–339352 / 208–478271 / 155–389291 / 181–413286 / 171–420163 / 57–28788 / 38–24957 / 25–173
DLI18 / 14–2220 / 17–2326 / 22–2730 / 26–3333 / 28–3532 / 30–3737 / 33–4134 / 32–3831 / 28–3427 / 23–3120 / 17–2617 / 14–23
RH %59 / 55–6362 / 56–6763 / 57–6965 / 59–7066 / 62–7168 / 64–7267 / 64–7167 / 64–7064 / 62–6760 / 58–6458 / 56–6357 / 54–62

Each figure is the median across the 151 grid cells holding the 303 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1354:5878 (22.275, 113.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 151 distinct grid cells holding the 303 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1354:5878 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.50_113.750, lapse-corrected +181 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 199 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan· introduced: Tunisia, KwaZulu-Natal, Mauritius, Réunion, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Andaman Is., Vietnam, Jawa, New Caledonia, Marianas, Hawaii, Florida, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.441, 114.161 · in the densest population, 173 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 312 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 83 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 982 km away. 816 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 312 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Livistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensisLivistona chinensis

Photographs: (c) Takaaki Hattori, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Livistona chinensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Identification of endophytic fungi from Livistona chinensis based on morphology and rDNA sequences
Liang‐Dong Guo, Kevin D. Hyde, Edward C. Y. Liew (2000) · New Phytologist
Detection and Taxonomic Placement of Endophytic Fungi within Frond Tissues of Livistona chinensis Based on rDNA Sequences
Liang Guo, Kevin D. Hyde, Edward C. Y. Liew (2001) · Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Highly efficient bio-adsorption of Malachite green using Chinese Fan-Palm Biochar (Livistona chinensis)
Balendu Shekher Giri, Ravi Kumar Sonwani, Sunita Varjani, Deepshi Chaurasia (2021) · Chemosphere
A method to promote sporulation in palm endophytic fungi
LD Guo, KD Hyde, Edward C. Y. Liew (1998)
Bioactive phenolics from the fruits of Livistona chinensis
Xiaobin Zeng, Yihai Wang, Qian Qiu, Chenguang Jiang (2011) · Fitoterapia
First report of a phytoplasma‐associated lethal decline of Sabal palmetto in Florida, USA
N. A. Harrison, Ericka E. Helmick, Monica L. Elliott (2009) · Plant Pathology
Occurrence of fungi on tissues of Livistona chinensis
Yanna, WH Ho, KD Hyde, Teik-Khiang Goh (2001) · The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong)
Antioxidant flavanes from Livistona chinensis
Xiaobin Zeng, Qian Qiu, Chenguang Jiang, Yuntiao Jing (2011) · Fitoterapia
Antibacterial and membrane damaging activity of Livistona chinensis fruit extract
Gurpreet Kaur, Raman P. Singh (2008) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Isolation of endophytes from two species of palm, from Bermuda
K. A. Southcott, John A. Johnson (1997) · Canadian Journal of Microbiology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.