Cephalotaxus griffithii

Hooker 1888

Common names

Griffith's plum yew (Tripp 1995), 贡山三尖杉 [Chinese] (Fu et al. 1999).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Cephalotaxus talonensis W.C.Cheng & K.M.Feng ex S.G.Lu & X.D.Lang 2013 (POWO 2024). Type: INDIA. Assam: Mishmi Hill, 1863–1864, W. Griffith 5000 (Lang et al. 2013). Lang et al. (2013) determined that C. lanceolata is an illegitimate name, having previously been applied to a cultivar by Beissner (1901); they resolved the matter by reducing C. lanceolata to synonymy with C. griffithii. Indeed, type specimens of the two taxa are morphologically extremely similar (Lang et al. 2013), and this merger has been accepted by subsequent authorities including POWO (accessed 2024.08.05) and Zhang et al. (2019).

Description

Trees to 20 m tall and 40 cm dbh, with a crown of pendulous branches. Bark purple, smooth. Twigs resemble two adjacent parallelograms in outline, broadly ‘V’-shaped in cross section, apex abruptly truncate. Leaves spreading horizontally at ca. 45° to twig axis, adaxially dark green, thin and leathery, margins revolute, petiole very short, bases rounded, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, distally tapered, straight or slightly falcate, 45–100 × 4–7 mm, apices long-acuminate, abaxial stomatal bands white. Pollen cones in groups of 6-11, 3–7 mm in diameter, peduncle ca. 3–6 mm with several spirally arranged scales; microsporophylls 6–13, each with 2–4 pollen sacs. Seeds cones with peduncle 15–20 mm long at maturity; aril greenish-brown when ripe. Seeds obovoid-ellipsoid, 35–45 mm long, maturing September–November (Fu et al. 1999, Lang et al. 2013).

Distribution and Ecology

China: W Sichuan(?), NW Yunnan (Gongshan Drungzu Nuzu Zizhixian: banks of upper Dulongjiang); India: Arunachal Pradesh (Mishmi Hills), Manipur, Nagaland; N Myanmar (Farjon 1998); N Thailand (see photo). Grows at 1830 m elevation in India (Tripp 1995) and ca. 1900 m in China, as scattered plants in broad-leaved forests (Fu et al. 1999). Hardy to Zone 8 or 9 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -1.1°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

The IUCN treats C. griffithii as a synonym of C. mannii and thus conflates conservation assessments for two different species; thus the assessment of "Vulnerable" is optimistic because it regards both species as having larger distributions and larger populations than they do. They also provide an assessment of "Endangered" for C. lanceolata. The C. mannii assessment dates from 2013 and even at that time acknowledged that an assessment of "Endangered" may be warranted due to range-wide loss of forest habitat and exploitation of the trees for their timber and bark (Liao and Yang 2013). Such an assessment is almost certainly warranted at this writing, in 2024.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2024.08.05.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2024.08.05.

Observations

No data as of 2024.08.05.

Remarks

The epithet honors William Griffith, British botanist, who collected widely in India and neighboring lands before dying of a tropical disease at the age of 35 (Lang 1913).

Citations

Beissner, L. 1901. Mitteilungen über Coniferen, Die Taxales. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Dendrologischen Gesellschaft 10: 73–74 & 117.

Hooker, J.D. 1888. Flora of British India 5:647-648.

Lang, W.H. 1913. William Griffith. Pp. 170-188 in F.W. Oliver (ed.), Makers of British Botany. Cambridge: The University Press. Pp. 178-191. Available at Google Books.

Lang, Xue-Dong, Jian-Rong Su, Shu-Gang Lu, and Zhi-Jun Zhang. 2013. A taxonomic revision of the genus Cephalotaxus (Taxaceae). Phytotaxa 84(1): 1-24.

Liao, W. and Y. Yang. 2013. Cephalotaxus mannii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T18625568A2804770. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T18625568A2804770.en, accessed on 2024.08.05.

Zhang, Jian-Wei, Ashalata D’Rozario, Xiao-Qing Liang, and Zhe-Kun Zhou. 2019. Middle Miocene Cephalotaxus (Taxaceae) from Yunnan, southwest China, and its implications to taxonomy and evolution of the genus. Palaeoworld 28(3): 381-402.

See also

K.M. Feng in W.C. Cheng et al. 1975. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 13(4):86.

Oliver, D. 1890. Cephalotaxus griffithii. Vol. X, pt. 1, 3rd series of J.D. Hooker (ed.) Hooker's Icones Plantarum. Note: the plant pictured in this article, pl. 1933, is actually C. oliveri.