Common Names

Chinese or oriental arborvitae, or ce bai [Chinese] (Fu et al. 1999).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Biota orientalis (Linnaeus) Endlicher; Thuja orientalis Linnaeus 1753; Platycladus stricta Spach; Thuja chengii Bordëres et Gaussen; T. orientalis var. argyi Lemèe et H. Lèveillè (Fu et al. 1999). It is the sole species in the genus Platycladus Spach 1842 (syn. Biota D. Don ex Endlicher).

Description

Evergreen, monoecious trees to more than 20 m tall and more than 100 cm dbh. Bark red-brown to light grey-brown, thin, flaking in long strips. Crown ovoid-pyramidal when young, broadly rounded or irregular when old. Branchlets arranged in a plane, spreading or ascending, flattened. Leaves decussate, 4-ranked, scalelike, base decurrent, 1-3 mm long, apex bluntly pointed, with an abaxial resin gland, dimorphic along branchlets; lateral leaves overlapping facial ones, boat-shaped, ridged, apex slightly incurved, without conspicuous, white stomatal bands abaxially but with a median groove. Facial leaves rhomboid, with a conspicuous, linear, glandular groove at center abaxially. Pollen cones with 8-12 microsporophylls, each with 3-6 pollen sacs; yellowish green, ovoid, 2-3 mm long. Seed cones terminal, solitary, dehiscent when mature in first year, when immature bluish green, subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diameter, when ripe red-brown, subovoid, 1.5-2(-2.5) × 1-1.8 cm; cone scales 6 or 8, decussate, flat, thick, woody, only the middle 2 pairs fertile (proximal 2 fertile cone scales 2-seeded, distal 2 fertile scales 1-seeded); free bract apex a long, recurved cusp. Seeds wingless, rarely with a very narrow wing, grey-brown or purple-brown, ovoid or subellipsoid, 5-7 × 3-4 mm, slightly ridged. Cotyledons 2. Pollination March to April, seed maturity October (Fu et al. 1999).

Range

Korea, E. Russia, and China. Natural occurrences in China are difficult to distinguish from local introductions, owing to extensive cultivation and planting in the past. It is native in S Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi; introduced or status uncertain in Anhui, Fujian, N Guangdong, N Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, S Nei Mongol, Shandong, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, and Zhejiang. Occurs at 300-3,300 m. elevation (Fu et al. 1999). Naturalized in Florida (Little 1980).

Big Tree

One in Nasreddinabad, Tajikistan, is 35 m high and 14 m dbh (Vladimir Dinets e-mail 10-Jan-1998).

Oldest

Ages of some cultivated trees in the Beijing (China) area are said to exceed 1000 years (Silba 1996).

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

"It is common tree of China, and some relic populations exist in Central Asia (it is often said that they are all along The Great Silk Road and aren't natural, but there are also some very old trees in remote mountain areas" (Vladimir Dinets e-mail 10-Jan-1998).

Citations

Silba, John. 1996. Noteworthy conifers in the Xian Shan region of Beijing, China. American Conifer Society Bulletin 13(1):8-12.

See Also

Farjon (2005) provides a detailed account, with illustrations.

Franco. 1949. Portugaliae Acta Biol., ser. B, Sist. Vol. "J'lio Henriques": 33.

Spach. 1841. Hist. Nat. Vèg. Phan. 11: 333.