Rhapis excelsa(Thunb.) A.Henry

bamboo palm

WFO wfo-0000296167 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. a Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2019-03-06 / obs. 32423486
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Greg III Espera
fig. b Greg III Espera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191450923
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Greg III Espera
fig. c Greg III Espera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 119961230
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Eduardo Chacón Madrigal
fig. d Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94339664
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Eduardo Chacón Madrigal
fig. e Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94339689
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Eduardo Chacón Madrigal
fig. f Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94339704
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Raja bandi
fig. g Raja bandi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92066939
Rhapis excelsa, photographed by Raja bandi
fig. h Raja bandi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92066945

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 3 botanical countries

Regions where Rhapis excelsa is native: China Southeast, Hainan, Vietnam China SoutheastHainanVietnam
Native distribution of Rhapis excelsa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH
Vietnam VIE ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 14 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chamaerops excelsa Thunb.
  • Chamaerops excelsa var. gracilis Carrière
  • Chamaerops kwanwortsik Siebold ex H.Wendl.
  • Rhapis aspera W.H.Baxter
  • Rhapis cordata W.H.Baxter
  • Rhapis divaricata Gagnep.
  • Rhapis flabelliformis L'Hér.
  • Rhapis flabelliformis var. foliis-variegatis Rothsch.
  • Rhapis flabelliformis var. variegata B.S.Williams
  • Rhapis javanica Blume
  • Rhapis kwamwonzick Siebold ex Linden
  • Rhapis major Blume
  • Trachycarpus excelsus (Thunb.) H.Wendl.
  • Trachycarpus excelsus var. fortunei Makino

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol RHEX4. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.