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Cathaya argyrophylla

Cathaya argyrophylla - Cathaya, Cathay silver fir
  • Cathaya argyrophylla - Cathaya, Cathay silver fir - Click to enlarge
  • Cathaya argyrophylla - Cathaya, Cathay silver fir - Click to enlarge
  • Cathaya argyrophylla - Cathaya, Cathay silver fir - Click to enlarge

Scientific name: Cathaya argyrophylla  W.Y.Chun & Kuang  1962

Synonyms: Cathaya nanchuanensis Chun & Kuang, Pseudotsuga argyrophylla (Chun & Kuang) Greguss, Tsuga argyrophylla (Chun & Kuang) de Laub. & Silba

Common names: Cathaya, Cathay silver fir (English), Yinshan (Chinese)

 

Description

Tree to 24 m tall, with trunk to 40(-85) cm in diameter. Bark gray, irregularly and narrowly fissured. New shoots yellowish brown, ribbed with attached leaf bases, densely short hairy, the hairs wearing off by the second year. Buds light yellowish brown, 6-8 mm long. Needles sticking straight out all around the branch, 4-6 cm long and 2.5-3 mm wide, up to 3 cm long on short shoots, dark green above, with two white, stomatal bands beneath, each band with 11-17 lines of stomates, the tip rounded to bluntly pointed, the edges hairy at first, curled slightly under. Seed cones green before maturity, ripening dark brown, 3-5 cm long, 1.5-2 cm wide, with 13-16 seed scaled, these circular to oval, 15-25 mm long and 10-25 mm wide. Seed body 5-6 mm long, 3-4 mm thick, dark green with lighter mottling, the wing 5-9 mm longer.

The species name, Greek for “silver leaf”, refers to the silvery white stomatal bands on the under side.

South-central China, from southeastern Sichuan to eastern Hunan, south to central Guangxi. Scattered or forming small groves in mixed forests on rocky ridges and cliffs; 900-1,900 m.

 

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable

This species has a small global population, and the number of mature individuals is estimated to number not much more than 500 mature individuals; certainly less than 1,000 mature individuals. It is not clear if this species has been harvested much in the past, it appears to be a naturally scarce species. Much of the population is in protected areas and it enjoys the highest level of protection in China plus there is a general logging ban which has recently been imposed by the Chinese Government. Hence, although there is no evidence for any decline this species is listed as Vulnerable based simply on the small population size.

Cathaya argyrophylla is one of the prime examples of a relict conifer which had a very much wider distribution in the geologic past. In the Tertiary Cathaya occurred in Europe, Russia, and Canada, and the genus is rather common as a fossil in the Miocene lignite ('brown coal') deposits of Germany. Its taxonomic position has been the subject of some dispute in the past, but more recent phylogenetic studies in the Pinaceae have confirmed its status as a genus, probably related to Pseudotsuga in a 'pinoid' clade.

On medium high mountains, at elevations between (900-)1,200 m and 1,900 m a.s.l. The soils are the widely distributed red and yellow earths of humid, warm temperate to subtropical China. Wang (1961) has mentioned Cathaya argyrophylla as a rare conifer occurring in the evergreen sclerophyllous broad-leaved forest type. This forest type is dominated by numerous species of Fagaceae with mostly small, ovate lanceolate, coriaceous leaves. However, from the altitudinal range of the species it is likely that it occurs in an ecotonal type between the sclerophyllous and deciduous broad-leaved forest types. Other conifers with which it occurs are almost certainly Pinus fenzeliana (syn. Pinus kwangtungensis), and possibly also Tsuga chinensis and Nothotsuga longibracteata.

After its discovery in the 1950s, for many years this monotypic genus was considered to be an extremely rare conifer. Even herbarium specimens were very few and virtually nothing of it had reached botanic gardens and institutional herbaria outside China until very recently. It is a relatively rare conifer, but its extent of occurrence is now known to encompass four provinces in south-central China and herbarium collections (in China) are known from at least 10 localities. It is usually growing on inaccessible slopes and ridges and is not considered to be a valuable timber resource due to small or medium size and 'poor shape' in logging terms. The populations are well protected but there is concern that they will be replaced by faster growing broadleaved species if regeneration continues to be poor. The species is now in cultivation in China and is slowly becoming available through some botanic gardens in the West, e.g. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

This species is in cultivation through several forestry institutes and botanic gardens in China; outside China it is still very rare in collections and no mature plants exist in these. It has only recently been freed of its official embargo. Although the species is now available in the trade in both Europe and the USA, it will probably remain a tree for collector's gardens only, as it has no remarkable horticultural merit.

Several localities are within reserves and it enjoys legal protection (1st degree protection on the national Chinese list).

 

References

  • Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
  • Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
  • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.


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