King in the sun - TRex (Tetrapanax papyrifer)

[Dave Brown]

Thanks Simon,

I think mine is an emporess, from Carolpz, on UKO, so the second phase then, but I recall someone saying it was only a difference in marketing name as Rex was already in use by Mulu, and that the plants were identical

[simon]

I don't think Carol is even sure whether she has a Rex or an Empress. She did say that the vendor mentioned Empress when she bought it but she seems to have always reffered to it a Rex.

Paul said that Crug was initially selling the plants under thier respective collection numbers before later naming Rex and Empress.

[simon]

What is interesting is the apparent availability of the respective clones according to the RHS Plant Finder. 'Empress' and 'Di-Sue-Shan' show 1 supplier (not suprisingly, Crug). 'Steroidal Giant' shows three suppliers, 'Rex' shows 15 but suprisingly it shows 17 suppliers of the type. Considering it is supposed to be hard to get hold of, I suspect that most of those are probably actually 'Rex'.