Nice photos at a blog (in Vietnamese).
Foliage photo at an arboretum.
Specimen at Pinetum Blijdenstein, Netherlands.
Nice photos at a blog (in Vietnamese).
Foliage photo at an arboretum.
Specimen at Pinetum Blijdenstein, Netherlands.
Taxus chinensis
紅豆杉 [hong dou shan, Chinese], Thông đỏ bắc [Vietnamese], Chinese yew (Farjon 2010).
See Taxus for a discussion of the relationship between species in the genus. Synonymy:
Type: Sichuan, Wushan Xian, A. Henry 7155.
Shrubs or trees to 20 m tall and 150 cm DBH, with a rounded or pyramidal crown of numerous, ascending to erect branches. Bark thin, red- or purple-brown to gray, exfoliating in strips or flakes. Twigs slender, round, finely grooved alongside the leaf bases, variously dark green, yellow-green or bronzed. Leaves distichous, flat (not revolute), short-lanceolate to oblong, 15-20 × 2-3.2 mm, twisted at the short-petiolate base, thick, leathery, convex, with an obtuse to mucronate apex and a raised midrib on the upper surface. Midrib on lower surface flat but densely papillate, 0.3-0.4 mm wide, continuous to apex. Stomata densely distributed in a random pattern within two bands on the lower leaf surface. Pollen cones axillary, solitary, ovoid, 5-6 × 3-4 mm, each with 8-14 microsporophylls; very pale yellow at maturity. Seed cones axillary, mostly solitary, sessile, with a green aril maturing red or orange, 10-13 × 7-10 mm. Seeds ovoid, slightly flattened, 5-8 × 3.5-5 mm, green turning dark brown. The short, thick, flat leaves and papillae on the lower midrib serve to distinguish this species from all other Chinese Taxus; it also has relatively short, stubby leaves (Farjon 2010).
Vietnam; China: Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, S Gansu, N Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, NE Hunan, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, E Yunnan, Zhejiang. In China, found at elevations of 1100 to 2700 m in evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forest, often along streams, often in areas with understory bamboo thickets. In Vietnam, found on steep karst limestone slopes and ridges in evergreen fog forest at 900 to 1500 m elevation. Conifer associates include Pseudotsuga sinensis, Pinus fenzeliana, Chamaecyparis hodginsii, Tsuga chinensis, Podocarpus pilgeri, Nageia fleuryi and occasionally Xanthocyparis vietnamensis (Farjon 2010).
Distribution data for all species native to east Asia and Malesia, from Conifers of the World, downloaded on 2018.01.26. T. wallichiana as shown here includes T. florinii, because only a few herbarium collections are currently assigned to those species; the majority have instead been assigned to T. wallichiana and detailed review of the herbarium material will be needed to rectify this situation. The same is true of T. chinensis, some specimens of which can be assigned to T. calcicola.
Logging may have reduced the distribution of this species, especially in Vietnam, and harvest for medicinal purposes (primarily Taxol extraction) has certainly done so, leading to a large and rapid reduction in the species' area of occupancy; hence the "Endangered" classification. In China, this species (under the name of Taxus wallichiana var. chinensis) is listed as a Category 1 protected species, meaning exploitation is prohibited. All forms of harvesting wild plants were banned in 2003. In Vietnam, its exploitation for commercial purposes is restricted. Internationally, this species is listed on CITES Appendix II. Plantations have been established in China with the aim to harvest foliage for pharmaceutical purposes (Thomas et al. 2013).
No data as of 2023.02.23.
The wood of Taxus chinensis is used in China for construction, cooperage, furniture, and for wood carving and turning. In Vietnam it is also used for irrigation paddles in rice fields. Extracts of many parts of the plant (roots, wood, bark and leaves) are used in traditional medicine, while in modern times it has been used as a source of anti-cancer drugs such as Taxol, derived from the bark and leaves. The seeds contain oils that are also extracted, but treatment is necessary to neutralize the poisonous alkaloids. In horticulture it has been used in bonsai and to a limited extent as a garden shrub. It is doubtful whether this species is in cultivation outside China and Vietnam (Farjon 2010), though it can be found in a few botanical gardens.
I have no information on where it can be found in habitat. See the distribution map for collection localities, and it can be found in some botanical gardens, though this is one of those species where I might question the name it was collected under.
The epithet chinensis refers to China, where this species was discovered to science in 1885 or 1886 by the prolific collector Augustine Henry (1857-1930), a Scotsman and a doctor who managed to survive his collecting forays (not always easy among 19th Century botanists) and live to a ripe old age in Great Britain.
Rehder, Alfred. 1919. New species, varieties and combinations from the herbarium and the collections of the Arnold Arboretum. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 1:44-59 (p. 51). Available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2018.01.26.
Thomas, P., N. Li, and T. Christian. 2013. Taxus chinensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T42548A2987120. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42548A2987120.en, accessed 2018.01.27.
Luu and Thomas (2004) provide a description, range map, conservation status, drawings and photos for its occurrence in N Vietnam.
Last Modified 2023-12-17
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