Cephalotaxus hainanensis description

line drawing

Line drawing; for full size image go to the Flora of China (Fu et al. 1999).

Cephalotaxus hainanensis H.L. Li 1953

Common Names

Taxonomic notes

Very similar to C. mannii and placed in synonymy under that species by some authors (Tripp 1995). See C. mannii for further information, including a useful description and another illustration.

Description

Tree to 21.3 m tall. Needles 5-7.5 cm long, 3 mm wide (Tripp 1995).

Fu et al. (1999) report: "R. R. Mill considers the plants from Hainan (and possibly also those from Guangdong and Guangxi) to be separable as C. hainanensis H. L. Li (Lloydia 16: 164. 1953), which was placed in the synonymy of C. mannii by L. K. Fu (Acta Phytotax. Sin. 22: 281. 1984). Mill's comparison of the types and other material of both species suggests that they may be distinct taxa, with C. hainanensis differing as follows: leafy branchlets 8-10 × 4.5-5.5 cm in outline (not 11-19(-24) × 6-8(-9.5) cm); leaves borne at 70-80° to branchlet axis (not 45-70° ), parallel sided throughout (not tapered), stomatal bands 0.7-1.3 mm wide (not 1.2-1.6 mm), 2.5-4 × as wide as midvein (not 6-8 × ), apex abruptly and very shortly mucronate (not cuspidate); seed cones solitary (not 2 or 3 together)."

Range

China: Hainan Island, perhaps also Guangdong and Guangxi, although those plants are here assigned to C. mannii in accordance with Fu et al. (1999). USDA Zone 9 (Tripp 1995).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Seriously threatened in its home range due to logging for lumber and bark stripping for its content of anticancer alkaloids (Tripp 1995).