Keteleeria fortunei description

line drawing

Line drawing; for full size image go to the Flora of China (Wu and Raven 1999).

Keteleeria fortunei (A. Murray) Carrière

Common Names

Taxonomic notes

Syn: K. cyclolepis; K. oblonga (Silba 1986); Abies fortunei A. Murray; Abietia fortunei Kent. (Dallimore et al. 1967).

Description

"A tree [24 m] high in China, with corky bark and the habit of a Lebanon cedar. BRANCHES horizontal and spreading. BRANCHLETS orange-red, young shoots slender, with scattered hairs. BUDS ovoid, rounded at the apex, with numerous keeled scales. LEAVES of young trees linear, stiff, [2.5-3 cm] long, with spiny tips. LEAVES of mature trees [12-31 mm] long, rounded or shortly pointed at the apex. CONES cylindrical, [10-18 cm] long, [3-5 cm] wide (or [7.5 cm] wide when expanded), on stout, hairy stalks about [2.5 cm] long, purple or brownish when mature; scales larger and broader at the apex than K. davidiana, the widest part (about [3 cm]) being above the middle, the upper margin rounded and slightly toothed. SEED about [2 cm] long, with a wing [3 cm] in. long, both seed and wing larger than in K. davidiana, bright glossy brown in colour, the seed greyish beneath" (Dallimore et al. 1967).

Range

China (Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang); Hong Kong; Viet Nam (WCMC 1998). In S China, found in mountains near Fuzhou, where it was seen by Fortune in 1844, who distributed seeds and accounted for the eponymous epithet (Dallimore et al. 1967).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

This species is listed as "Lower Risk, near threatened" on the WCMC database (WCMC 1998).

Citations

WCMC = World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees database, accessed 1-Oct-1998.