Trachycarpus fortunei 'Wagnerianus' is unknown in the wild, but may have originated in cultivation in Japan, where it was first discovered by the horticulturalist Albert Wagner of Leipzig, Germany in the second half of the 19th century (in 1873).

He had a flourishing business growing palms in his steam-heated greenhouses in northern Germany.

It has remained in comparative obscurity until recently, when its qualities as a garden plant were at last realized.

New growth is margined with a short but dense white woolly tomentum.

[2] The palm's trunk grows to 9 m (30 ft) tall, or more sometimes, and is 20–25 cm (8–10 in) in diameter, when free of the leaf base fibers that tend to remain for a good while.