The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fan palm \Fan" palm`\ (Bot.) Any palm tree having fan-shaped or radiate leaves; as the Cham[ae]rops humilis of Southern Europe; the species of Sabal and Thrinax in the West Indies, Florida, etc.; and especially the great talipot tree ( Corypha umbraculifera) of Ceylon and Malaya. The leaves of the latter are often eighteen feet long and fourteen wide, and are used for umbrellas, tents, and roofs. When cut up, they are used for books and manuscripts.
Wiktionary
n. (context botany English) Any palm tree with fan-shaped or radiate leaf.
WordNet
n. palm having palmate or fan-shaped leaves
Wikipedia
Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of palms in various genera with leaves that are palmately lobed (rather than pinnately compound). Among these genera are:
- Bismarckia
- Borassus
- Coccothrinax
- Copernicia
- Hyphaene
- Licuala
- Pritchardia
- Rhapidophyllum
- Rhapis
- Sabal
- Thrinax
- Trachycarpus
- Trithrinax
Fan palm can also be used as part of the common name of particular genera or species. Among the palms commonly known as fan palms are:
- Chamaerops (European fan palm)
- Hyphaene petersiana (Real fan palm)
- Livistona (Chinese fan palm and others)
- Washingtonia (California fan palm, Mexican fan palm)
- Latania (Indian Ocean fan palms)
The Travellers palm (Ravenala madagascariensis) is often called a fan palm because of its distinctive shape; however it is not a true palm.
Usage examples of "fan palm".
I tried to tell him that the fan palm is the only member of the Arecaceae actually native to California, but I was distracted by the discovery that he had the front page of the London Times for January 6, 1863, tattooed on his chest.
But Sarna made it come alive, giving names to the scrub - greasewood, honey mesquite, rabbit brush -directing our eyes toward rare oases of activity - a flock of birds feasting upon a bitter cherry bush, an alligator lizard scurrying across the spines of a fan palm - extolling the beauty of a single, time-ravaged digger pine, describing the savagery of a hard winter in the high desert and the resilience of those creatures that survive.
One type of palm, the fan palm, more than twenty feet high, which spreads its leaves in the form of an opened fan, is an excellent source of pure water, as much as a liter of such water being found, almost as though cupped, at the base of each leaf’.
I then rose to my feet and walked a few yards away, to a fan palm.
The florist retreated behind a fan palm after resecuring the door.
A big fan palm flourished near the door to their room, not visibly touched by smog or limited by its small patch of ground midst so much concrete and blacktop, bristling with new growth even in winter, as if nature had chosen it as a subtle omen of her intention to seize every corner of the earth again when humankind passed on.
There were Wandering Jews and bromeliads, ivies and ferns, a Japanese fan palm .
With a sudden chattering scream, he bounded out of the bottom of the basket, soaring over their heads in a long, flat leap, and struck the high knee at the base of the nearest tree, an immense fan palm.
With a sudden chattering scream, he bounded outof the bottom of the basket, soaring over their heads in along, flat leap, and struck the high knee at the base of thenearest tree, an immense fan palm.