Jim,
Nice photos.
I got several stout versions of Nova which however I am not sure grown from T.fortunei seeds or Nova seeds. Since
I did not grow T.fortunei purposely and they are most likely to be Nova even if few could be mixed up .
They tend to fall into the category of T.fortunei. See your stout Nova and the leaves are not evenly and narrowly split like normal Nova I put above and plus the trunk and petioles are not elongated, pretty much like T.fortunei.
To tell the truth, I did collect a second source of Nova seeds as I mentioned before and the current result showed that they are stouter than normal Nova, unlike the standard Nova with narrowly and evenly split leaflets, ,though with narrow leaves and bit of slender look.
I found that all the young seedlings of Trachycarpus princeps and the two types of Nova are all narrowly leaved, different from T.fortunei seedlings with much broader leaves of 180 degree across shown by my above photos. Could that be a response to the strong sunlight to avoid burn when young?

Jim,
Could that be a response to the strong sunlight to avoid burn when young?

Not sure about that Garry.

You probably saw the post about 'abnormalities' in Nova on EPS-
I think to many people have this stout version of Nova to write it off....
In that same thread I posted a link to a post by Lzrddr in Cali(from GWF),he also has a palm
sold as Princeps(that at the time were turning out to be Nova) that resembles this palm and it's a beauty!!

Look at his second post with pics-I am guessing(also hoping)this 'stouter version'
turns out to be this palm.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/palms/msg0300532018430.html

John, Trachycaprus is normally not allowed to enter USA for the "Lethal Yellow" Disease or whatever and you and Jim probably got the biggest ones so far out there.We got big sizes like the adult palms shown by the photos.
Jim,
Yes that is a pretty different version of Nova with wider leaflets and stiff appearance.
But in term of trunk, I would say it is not so stout as Tesan or some T.fortunei, 😀 .
It is compacter and wider leaved with not so elongated petioles. Few of what I am growing deviated
from most normal Nova is kind of like this.

Take a look at here which I think is the normal Nova .
http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=24370

By the way,
This is normal Nova wrongly listed as T.princeps from Davesgarden
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/118712/

I am not sure if this juvenile grows from the above Nova.If so, that means all the Nova will finally turn
out to be the same style like this
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/194204/

Is this the adult from the above two?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/146676/

Garry

as I said before I really love the Tesan and any more info/pics you have on them would be much appreciated!

Those are some great pics,interesting to me that all of the Princeps,Nova and the stouter palm showing up
repeatedly sold as Princeps/Nova have a tighter wrapping of the fibers than regular Fortunei.

I noticed that some of(let's for lack of better/known term call it)Nova-compact do occasionally show very white undersides to leaves
as "regular" Nova can.

I wonder if(just as many large mountain ranges have 'foothills' )the original mistaken seed sold as Princeps were all Nova/Nova stout
that were gathered not where the epicenter-the cliffs!-of Princeps is(Stonegate)but in the foothills/outskirts of where real Princeps grows?

People did not go to the cliffs where Princeps grows but just grabbed seeds from plants in between where Princeps and Fortunei grow-NOVA!?

Jim, I would say the few Nova and also some T.fortunei that have some white powder to the backsides are blue or silver as the white powder is not that thick and therefore not as white as that on T.princeps.
Even the bluest Nova I saw on EPS is nowhere near T.princeps which is definitely SNOW WHITE if you look at the habitat photos I posted on EPS. But in cultivation, the princeps we saw by some growers seem not to be so white but look bit of bluish because of insufficient white powder. That is possibly why people did not draw a clear line between them.
Regarding your speculation that Nova might be the hybrid between T.princeps and fortunei, it is reasonable but hard to verify it so far.

Yea Garry-

until there is some serious DNA testing we may never know for sure,unless...................

we try some of these crosses ourselves 😀

That would be fun!