Cunninghamia lanceolata (China-fir) description

Cunninghamia lanceolata

(Lambert) Hooker 1827

Common names

China fir, コウヨウザン koyo-zan zoku [Japanese], 杉木 shan mu [Chinese], Sa moc, Sa mu [Vietnamese].

Taxonomic notes

Synonymy: Pinus lanceolata Lambert 1803, Belis jaculifolia Salisbury, B. lanceolata (Lambert) Hoffmannsegg, Cunninghamia chinensis de Vos, C. lanceolata var. corticosa Z.Y. Que & J.X. Li, C. sinensis R. Brown ex Richard & A. Richard, C. unicanaliculata D.Y. Wang & H.L. Liu, C. unicanaliculata var. pyramidalis D.Y. Wang & H.L. Liu; Larix chinensis Miller (1768) not Beissner (1896), Raxopitys cunninghamii J. Nelson (Wu and Raven 1999).

Description

Trees to 50 m tall and 300 cm dbh, with conical or pyramidal, dark green crowns. Bark dark gray to dark brown, or reddish brown, longitudinally fissured, cracking into irregular flakes and exposing a aromatic, yellowish or reddish inner bark. Branches whorled, spreading, pendulous at the ends. Leaves stiff, densely and spirally arranged, but spreading in 2 ranks, glossy deep green adaxially, narrowly linear-lanceolate, straight or slightly falcate, 0.8-6.5(-7) cm × 1.5-5 mm, midvein green abaxially, 0.3-1.2 mm wide, flat with median longitudinal keel throughout, stomatal bands present on both surfaces, bands on adaxial surface 0.5-1.5 mm wide, of 16-28 rows of stomata, white powdery or not, bands on abaxial surface 1.2-2.8 mm apart, 0.3-0.8(-1) mm from leaf margin, not or rarely white powdery, base decurrent, margin denticulate, sometimes indistinctly so, especially on old trees, with 18-55(-90) teeth per side, apex usually symmetric and spinescent, spine 0.3-2 mm. Pollen cone fascicles terminal, 1-3(-5) together, broadly obovoid, each of 8-20 cones, occasionally a few also around base of seed cone; peduncle 2-4 mm; cones narrowly oblong-conical. Seed cones terminal, 1-4 together, at pollination shortly cylindric-ovoid, ca. 12 × 8 mm, green, later turning brown-reddish and becoming ovoid or subglobose, 2.5-4.5 × 2.5-4 cm; bracts coriaceous, glaucous or glossy, broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, base with short claw 1/5-1/2 × total length of bract, distal part gradually narrowed toward pointed apex, 1/14-1/5 × total length of bract. Seeds 3 per scale, dark brown, oblong or narrowly ovate, 5-6 × ca. 4 mm, narrowly winged laterally. Pollination Jan-May, seed maturity Aug-Nov, cotyledons 2 (Li 1975, Walker 1976, FIPI 1996, Wu and Raven 1999). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

"A very variable species: specimens occur with spinescent or obtuse leaf apices and with or without white stomatal bands on the adaxial leaf surface. The latter character is at least partly dependent on the age of the tree and the position of the leaf on the tree: leaves exposed to sunlight have less conspicuous adaxial stomatal bands than those in shade, as do leaves of old trees. Variants also occur with strongly glaucous leaves" (Wu and Raven 1999).

Distribution and Ecology

China: Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; Viet Nam (N), and perhaps Cambodia. It is also widely introduced in Taiwan. Habitat includes forests, rocky hillsides and roadsides at 200-2800 m elevation (Wu and Raven 1999). It often grows as a forest dominant, and competes best on well drained sandy and loamy soils (FIPI 1996).

This species is can be grown from rooted cuttings, a feature it shares with some of its relatives (e.g. Sequoia), but not with most conifers (Li and Ritchie 1999a, 1999b).

Hardy to Zone 7 (cold hardiness limit between -17.7°C and -12.2°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

The only tree for which I have seen a measurement is on ornamental specimen in Capitol Park, Sacramento, California which was 31.7 m tall and 88 cm dbh (104 feet tall and 108.75 inch girth) in 2007 (Arthur L. Jacobson e-mail 2007.08.24).

Ethnobotany

The wood is pale yellow to white, density 0.4-0.5, soft but durable, easily worked, and resistant to insects and termites. It is used in house-building, for furniture, floor, panels, packaging, and coffins. It is suitable for reforestation and planting along the roads of mountainous provinces, in subtropical evergreen, coniferous and mixed broad-leaved forests (FIPI 1996). It is the most important fast-growing timber tree of the warm regions S of the Chang Jiang valley; it is propagated by seed, cuttings, or suckers. The wood is strongly resistant to rot, is not eaten by termites, and is easily worked; it is used in constructing buildings, bridges, ships, and lamp posts, in furniture manufacture, and for wood fiber (Wu and Raven 1999).

Eisenberg et al. (2009) studied the sustainable harvest of Cunninghamia by the Kam people, who inhabit the mountains in the Guizhou-Hunan-Guangxi (China) borderlands. They report that "Before 1949, the Kam of Guangxi Province practiced a widespread tradition whereby on the first day of spring, fathers brought their sons to the hillsides to plant ten Cunninghamia lanceolata saplings each." For centuries these people harvested Cunninghamia, debarked and seasoned the logs in the mountains, and then tied them into rafts for delivery down the Qingshui River to markets. The wood was marketed, as was the bark, which was used as a roofing material and as a covering for fish nests in pond aquaculture. Regrettably, this tradition was ended in 2006 with the damming of the river downstream of the village of Caiyuan. John Amato has a page of excellent photographs documenting these traditional logging and rafting activities by the Kam people.

Observations

Fairly common in the mountains of Sichuan, e.g. the ranges east of the Dadu River (where I have seen it). Taroko National Park in Taiwan also looks like an interesting place to see it. Other Taiwan locations, recorded in the HAST database (1999), include:

Hualien Xian: Taroko National Park: en route from Hsinpiyang to Pilu. Elevation 1500-2050 m.

Xinchu Xian: Wufeng Hsiang: between Tuchang and Kuanwu. Broadleaf forest; vast slope cleared for Prunus orchard. Elevation 1300 m.

Nantou Xian: Jenai Hsiang: National Chung Hsing. University Hui-Sun Experimental Forest. Along the forest road to Tang-kungpei; mixed coniferous-broadleaf forest. 121°02'17"E, 24°05'20"N. Elevation:600-800 m. Forest roadside. Plantation tree ca. 15-20 m tall; DBH ca. 10-20 cm cone ca. 2.5 cm diameter.

Remarks

Citations

Averyanov, L. V., T. H. Nguyen, K. N. Sinh, T. V. Pham, V. Lamxay, S. Bounphanmy, S. Lorphengsy, L. K. Phan, S. Lanorsavanh, and K. Chantthavongsa. 2014. Gymnosperms of Laos. Nordic Journal of Botany 32(6):765–805.

Brown, R. 1866. The Miscellaneous Botanical Works of Robert Brown (etc.)., V. 1. London: The Ray Society (p. 479). Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2013.01.10.

Eisenberg, Amy, John Amato, and Dengtao. 2009. Kam Guilzhouh nyim Guangxxih di Benxtux Wenchual nyim Zihyuanc dih Gonxliix: Kam Local Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Resource Management in Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces, China. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 7:67-113.

Herbarium of the Research Center For Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taipei [HAST]. 1999. Database output at http://www2.sinica.edu.tw:8080/hast/eindex.html, accessed 1999.03.15, now defunct.

Hayata, B. 1908. New Conifers from Formosa. Gardeners' Chronicle ser. 3, 43:194. Available: Google Books, accessed 2012.10.29.

Li, M. and Ritchie, G.A. 1999a. Eight hundred years of clonal forestry in China: I. traditional afforestation with Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.). New Forests 18:131-142.

Li, M. and Ritchie, G.A. 1999b. Eight hundred years of clonal forestry in China: II. Mass production of rooted cuttings of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook.). New Forests 18:143-159.