Why is Nova called green Princeps?

[garryendson]

Why is Nova called green princeps This question boggled and are still confusing many people
As we all know nova were once known as green T.princeps because they were mistakenly sold as T.princeps but turned out to be something different growing very fast no other trachycaprus can beat (excluding Winsan).
However some say Nova are just T.fortunei except for the faster growth rate. Actually, it is not correct.

Look at the photos of Nova -narrow type and you will better understand what I am getting at. This narrow type of Nova seedlings is identical to those of princeps in term of evenly and narrowly split leaves minus the white powder .It makes sense to call this narrow type of Nova green princeps before we figure the mystery out as clearly as now.
Jim also got a nova which I think belongs to this form, but compacter bearing more resemblance to princeps in this respect.I noticed this variation on my Nova as well which has no leggy trunk or elongated petioles, just giving a confusing impression of princeps, I distinguish from princeps only by checking and confirming the white powder.

Based on our observation of hundreds of Nova seedlings grown in the field and pots from the seeds in the stone gate, we found out that there are actually two forms of Nova.
One is the wide type with wide,stiff and irregularly split leaves ,but narrower than those of T. fortunei, This is what many growers got and is the reason why some unsuspecting people say Nova is a kind of T.fortunei except they are growing fast with stretched trunk.
the second is narrow type with narrowly and regularly split leaves like princeps we showed in the photos.
What is interesting is that both forms are growing pretty fast with long and large parts than their counterparts other trachycarpus do not match.

See more photos of both forms.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18211312@N04/

[garryendson]

Today, I have taken more photos of T.nova and princeps in pots and ground from seeds we collected from the stone gate .
From the photos , we still can see T.nova are dramatically different with narrowly and evenly split seedlings leaves like T.princeps . By comparison, almost all other trachycarpus including officially acknowledged species have wide and irregularly seedling leaves and sometimes, we even have a hard time distinguishing them when they are young. But we dont have any problem distinguishing Nova from others based on this unique feature and unparalleled fast growth rate .





Trachycarpus fortunei have wide and irregularly split seedling leaves, very easy to tell apart from Nova and princeps ,but some people say Nova with such clear difference are T.fortunei possibly because they do not pay attention to the leaf details or grow something else.