Pinus fenzeliana

Handel-Mazzetti 1931

Common names

海南五针松 hainan wuzhensong (literally, "Hainan 5-needle pine") [Chinese] (Wu and Raven 1999); Hainan white pine.

Taxonomic notes

For the type variety, syn: P. parviflora Sieb. & Zucc. var. fenzeliana (Hand.-Mazz.) C.L. Wu 1956 (Wu and Raven 1999).

For variety P. fenzeliana var. dabeshanensis (Cheng & Law) Fu & Li 1997, syn: P. dabeshanensis Cheng & La 1975, P. armandii Franchet var. dabeshanensis Silba 1990 (Wu and Raven 1999).

"The differences between the two [varieties] are primarily quantitative and somewhat continuous in nature, and that justifies their recognition at the varietal rank" (Li & Fu 1997).

For discussion of systematics relative to other species in subsection Strobus, see Phylogeny of East Asian white pines.

Description

Trees to 50 m tall and 100 cm dbh. Bark dark brown or gray-brown, flaking. First-year branchlets pale brown, drying to a dark red-brown, rarely glaucous, slender, glabrous, longitudinally furrowed. Winter buds cylindric-conical or ovoid, slightly resinous. Needles 5 per fascicle, slender, triangular in cross section, 5-18 cm × 0.5-0.7 cm, flexible, vascular bundle 1, resin canals 3, 2 marginal and 1 medial. Seed cones solitary or 2-4 clustered at base of branchlets, on a peduncle 1-2 cm long, green, maturing to yellow-brown, narrowly ovoid, ellipsoid-ovoid, or cylindric-ellipsoid, 6-14 × 3-6 cm, usually resinous, dehiscent. Seed scales almost cuneate or oblong-obovoid, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm at middle of cone; apophyses broadly subrhombic, distal margin obviously reflexed, apex thickened. Seeds chestnut or pale brown, obovoid-ellipsoid, 0.8-1.5 cm × 5-8 mm; seed coat thin; wing rudimentary, 2-4(-7) mm or much shorter. Pollination in April, seed maturity in October to November of the second year (Wu and Raven 1999).

The two varieties can be distinguished according to the following key, here reproduced from Wu and Raven (1999):

1	Needles 10-18 cm; seed cones narrowly ovoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, 6-9 cm; seeds chestnut brown, wing 2-4(-7) mm	var. fenzeliana
+	Needles 5-14 cm; seed cones cylindric-ellipsoid, ca. 14 cm; seeds pale brown, wing very short, woody	var. dabeshanensis

Pinus armandii is similar, but has a thick, hard seed coats; seeds are wingless or ridged along abaxial margin; apophyses are not or slightly reflexed at their margins; and it is widely distributed in China. P. fenzeliana has a thin, easily breakable seed coats; seeds have a rudimentary wing 2-7 mm long; the apophyses obviously reflexed at their margin; and it is only native to southern China (Li and Fu 1997, Wu and Raven 1999).

Distribution and Ecology

Vietnam and China: SW Anhui, Guangxi, C and N Guizhou, Hainan, SE Henan, E Hubei, and SE Sichuan, at 900-1600 m elevation. The type variety occurs in Vietnam and China: Guangxi, C and N Guizhou, Hainan, and SE Sichuan (Wulong Xian) at 1000-1600 m, while var. dabeshanensis occurs in China: SW Anhui (Jinzhai Xian, Yuexi), SE Henan (Shangcheng Xian), and E Hubei (Luotian Xian, Yingshan Xian) at 900-1400 m (Wu and Raven 1999). For var. dabeshanensis, the type location is SW Anhui: Dabie Shan, at 900-1400 m (Li & Fu 1997).

Var. dabeshanensis is described as endangered by Wu and Raven (1999).

Hardy to Zone 9 (cold hardiness limit between -6.6°C and -1.1°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

The epithet honors "Fenzel", who collected the type specimen, but nothing more is known about them; the type specimen has been lost. It might be a reference to Austrian botanist Eduard Fenzl (1808-1879).

Citations

Handel-Mazzetti, H. 1931. Kleine Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Flora von China. Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 80:337-338.

See also