Juniperus morrisonicola

Hayata 1908

Common names

香青 [Chinese].

Taxonomic notes

Juniperus morrisonicola is a member of the turbinate-seed-cone clade of central Asia, which contains about 20 taxa, most of which are high-elevation shrubs of very similar appearance. Traditionally it has generally been treated as a variety of J. squamata, which it very closely resembles, and molecular evidence shows it to share a clade with J. squamata and J. tibetica (Adams and Schwarzbach 2012, 2013). Both J. tibetica and J. morrisonicola might reasonably be treated as infraspecific taxa of J. squamata, although J. tibetica has not been so described.

Synonymy:

• J. squamata sensu Kanehira 1936 non Buch.-Ham.;
• Sabinella morrisonicola (Hayata) Nakai 1938; and
• Juniperus squamata Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don var. morrisonicola (Hayata) H.L. Li et H. Keng 1954.

Description

Dioecious (occasionally monoecious) evergreen trees or shrubs to 10 m tall and 100 cm dbh, with long, decumbent branches. Bark brown, exfoliating in thin plates. Twigs ascending. Leaves all decurrent, densely arranged, concave and whitish above, grooved and green below, 3-5 × 1 mm, apex mucronate. Seed cones greenish-brown, maturing in 1 year, purple-black at maturity, subtended at the base by several bracts, ovoid to globose, 6-8 mm long, containing 1 seed. Pollen shed in spring (Li 1975, Adams 2014).

Distribution and Ecology

Taiwan: "central ranges at high altitudes of over 3,000 meters, the highest growing conifer of the island, forming a dense scrub or on open, exposed slopes growing as a tree" (Li 1975). Hardy to Zone 5 (cold hardiness limit between -28.8°C and -23.3°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001, variety not specified).

This species has not been recognized by the IUCN and thus has no formal conservation status. I can find no evidence that any other authority has assessed its vulnerability.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.03.03.

Ethnobotany

Observations

Reported collections (HAST 1999) include:

• Yushan National Park, 3950 m, growing 2 m high in a sunny and dry place.
• Nantou Xian: 121°02'50"E, 23°30'50"N, 3200-3600 m. Abundant on exposed rocky slope above tree line. Gnarled shrub ca. 1.4 m tall.
• Kaohsiung Xian: 3150 m. Ca. 1.5 m high, trunk ascending, growing adjacent to steep cliffs.

Yushan National Park looks like a good place to see it.

Remarks

The epithet designates the type locale: the summit area of Mount Morrison (today more commonly called Yushan).

Citations

Adams, R. P. 2014. Junipers of the World: The Genus Juniperus, 4th ed. Bloomington, IN: Trafford Publ. Co.

Adams, R. P., and A. E. Schwarzbach. 2012. Taxonomy of the turbinate shaped seed cone taxa of Juniperus, section Sabina: sequence analysis of nrDNA and four cpDNA regions. Phytologia 94(3):388-403.

Adams, R. P., and A. E. Schwarzbach. 2013. Taxonomy of the turbinate shaped seed cone taxa of Juniperus, section Sabina: Revisited. Phytologia 95:122–124.

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

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.

See also

Huang 1994 (the Flora of Taiwan).