There has been existing a confusion and debate over T.nova for a long time and in order to clarify it,I took more photos of T.nova and princeps in pots and ground from seeds we collected from the stone gate as they are big enough against T.fortunei to tell the difference.
From the photos , we still can see T.nova are dramatically different with narrowly and evenly split seedlings leaves like T.princeps .Plus the princeps we are growing are quite blue silver in term of the uppersides of leaves except the white undersides , a typical blue palm , not a green one of which people usually focus attention only to the white powder beneath.
By comparison, almost all other trachycarpus including officially acknowledged species have wide and irregularly seedling leaves (maybe part oreophilus excluded) and sometimes, we even may 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. But if the 4th photo below is a black rather than a color one, we may mix up Nova with princeps
For photos of adult princeps and nova palms in the habitat, visit our newly updated site www.coldplant.com

Some may mix up nova with princeps if it is a black photo.

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 ignore the leaf details or grow something else.