Arecaceae
Rhapis

Rhapis excelsa (Thunb.) A.Henry

First published in J. Arnold Arbor. 11: 153 (1930)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is China (Guangdong) to N. Central Vietnam. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome. It is used as a medicine and has environmental uses.

Distribution

Native to:

China Southeast, Hainan, Vietnam

Introduced into:

Assam, China South-Central, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Thailand, Trinidad-Tobago

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

Kew's Tree of Life Explorer

Discover the flowering plant tree of life and the genomic data used to build it.

View the Tree of Life
PAFTOL

Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Anh, T.T.P. & Henderson, A. (2017). Thực Vật Chí Việt Nam. Flora of Vietnam 13: 1-414. Nhà xuất bản khoa học và kỹ thuật, Hà Nội.
  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Henderson, A. (2009). Palms of Southern Asia: 1-197. Princeton university press, Princeton and Oxford.
  • Henderson, A. (2016). A revision of Rhapis (Arecaceae). Phytotaxa 258: 137-152.
  • Iwatsuki, K., Boufford, D.E. & Ohba, H. (2016). Flora of Japan IVb: 1-335. Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo.
  • Mehmud, S., Roy, H. & Borthakur, S.K. (2025). Palms of Assam in the North East Region: 1-78. Scientific Publishers, New Deli-Jodhpur.
  • Pasha, M.K. & Uddin, S.B. (2013). Dictionary of plant names of Bangladesh, Vasc. Pl.: 1-434. Janokalyan Prokashani, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
  • Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2010). Flora of China 23: 1-515. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

  • L. Hastings, A Revision of Rhapis, the Lady Palms. 2003

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Henderson, A. (2016). A revision of Rhapis (Arecaceae). Phytotaxa 258: 137-152.
  • Mehmud, S., Roy, H. & Borthakur, S.K. (2025). Palms of Assam in the North East Region: 1-78. Scientific Publishers, New Deli-Jodhpur.
  • Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2010). Flora of China 23: 1-515. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • Jansen, P., Lemmens, R., Oyen, L., Siemonsma, J., Stavast, F. & Van Valkenburg, J. (1991) Plant Resources of South-East Asia. Basic list of species and commodity grouping. Final version. Pudoc, Wageningen.
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Henderson, A.; Nguyen Quoc Dung; Phan Xuan Phuong; Le Van Bo [3250] Vietnam K000526536 No
Henderson, A.; Nguyen Quoc Dung, Phan Xuan Phuong, & Le Van Bo [3221] Vietnam K000667111 No
Hastings, L. [s.n.] K:SPC-77545.000 No
Henderson, A.; Bui Van Thanh, Nguyen Van Thang & Trinh Minh Vu [3490] Vietnam K000667225 No
Nguyen, V.D.; Vu, X.P.; Nguyen, T.C.; Bui, H.Q.; de Kok, R.P.J.; Utteridge, T.M.A.; Moore, A.; Trudgen, M.; Briggs, M. [HNK2006] Vietnam K000526591 No
Cultivated [1987-2573] K000521976 No
Henderson, A.; Ninh Khac Ban [3433] Vietnam K000667050 Yes
China K:SPC-51382.000 No
Henderson, A.; Nguyen Quoc Dung, Nguyen Phu Nam, & Le Van Bo [3320] Vietnam K000667037 No
Henderson, A.; Bui Van Thanh, Tran Dinh Duc & Nguyen Cong Thien [3482] Vietnam K000667203 No

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

    • Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    • Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0