Pseudotaxus chienii

(W.C. Cheng) W.C. Cheng 1947

Common names

White-berry yew; 白豆杉 bai dou shan [Chinese].

Taxonomic notes

The genus was described as Pseudotaxus W.C. Cheng 1947 and then as Nothotaxus Florin 1948.

Synonynmy:

• Taxus chienii W.C. Cheng 1934;
• Nothotaxus chienii (W.C. Cheng) Florin 1948;
• Pseudotaxus liiana Silba 1996;
• Pseudotaxus chienii subsp. liana Silba 2007.

P. chienii subsp. liana may win acceptance as a valid subspecies. The Flora of China (Fu et al. 1999) is inconclusive, and I have seen no later analysis.

Description

Shrubs to 4 m tall. Crown not described. Bark gray-brown, peeling in strips. Branchlets round, green or yellow-green in first year, dark green in second year. Leaves borne at 40-45° to axis when young but at 50-90° on mature trees; petiole absent or less than 1 mm; blade bright green adaxially in 1st year, thereafter dark green, linear, straight or slightly falcate, 1-2.6 cm × 2-4.5 mm, not leathery, midvein 0.4 mm wide, stomatal bands 0.5-1.1 mm wide, broader than or about as wide as marginal bands, in 9 rows on young plants increasing to 13-19 rows on adult plants, marginal bands 0.2-0.3 mm wide. Aril 5-7 mm diameter with a single ovoid seed, 5-8 × 4-5 mm. Pollination occurs from late March to May, seed maturity in October (Fu et al. 1999). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

China: N Guangdong, N Guangxi, NW and S Hunan, SW Jiangxi, S Zhejiang; cultivated as an ornamental in Zhejiang (Fu et al. 1999). Rare understory shrub in cool, moist temperate montane forest dominated by evergreen or deciduous angiosperms (Farjon 1998).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.02.23.

Ethnobotany

The wood is used as a carving material and for making utensils (Fu et al. 1999).

Observations

No data as of 2023.02.23.

Remarks

Citations

Cheng, W. C. 1934. Contr. Biol. Lab. Chin. Assoc. Advancem. Sci., Sect. Bot., 9(3): 240.

Cheng W.C. 1947. Research Notes, Forestry Institute; National Central University, Nanking. Dendrological Series 1:1.

Florin, C.R. 1948. On Nothotaxus; a new genus of the Taxaceae from eastern China. Acta Hort. Berg. 14: 385-395.

Silba, J. 1996. Phytologia 81(4): 327.

Silba, J. 2007. J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 14(1): 19.

See also

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.

Lin Qi and Cao Ziyu. 2007. Acta Bot. Yunnan. 29(3): 292.