Common Names
Taiwan hemlock (5).Taxonomic notes
Syn: T. forrestii, T. tchekiangensis (1). One variety, formosana.Description
"A large tree, branchlets with leaf-cushions. Leaves spirally arranged, more or less 2-ranked, linear, flat, olive green and grooved above, keeled, with 2 white stomatic bands beneath, the apex emerginate, 16-20 mm. long, petioles crooked. Mature cones ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long, pendulous, cone scales suborbicular, with longitudinal streaks, bracts small, 2 lobed at the apex. Seeds winged, about 7 mm. long, including the wing. Trunk bark blackish brown, with irregular longitudinal breaks, scaly; lenticels inconspicuous; outer barks about 6 mm.thick, with alternate tiered layers of pale yellowish brown corky layers and brown lignified fibrous layers; newly formed periderm purplish red; inner bark about 4-5 mm. thick, pale reddish brown, fibrous with minute, nearly inconspicuous stone-cell groups, cambium and newly formed phloem almost inconspicuous. Freshly cut sapwood pale yellowish white, wood rays inconspicuous" (5).Range
China; Taiwan: Nantou and Taoyuan Xian at 1700-3500 m, mixed with broadleaf forest; not common (3).Big Tree
Often attains a diameter of 200 cm (4).Oldest
Age often exceeds 400 years (4).Dendrochronology
Have some exploratory cores from the Hailuogou Glacier Park in Sichuan. It has seen some limited application in stable carbon isotope studies (6) and a study of climate variation (7).Ethnobotany
Observations
Seen at Hailuogou Glacier Park in Sichuan. Taiwan collections reported for: Yushan National Park (23°28'N, 120°57'E), Lalashan Preserve (121°25'30"E, 24°44'00"N) (3).Yushan National Park looks like a good place to see it.
Remarks
Dominates a widespread forest altitudinal belt in the mountains of SW China at 2200-2700(3300) m (4).Listed as threatened in Viet Nam by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
Citations
(1) Silba 1986.(2) Cheng & Fu 1987.
(3) Botanical Inventory Of Taiwan.
(4) P. 142 in Liu 1971.
(5) Liu 1970.
(6) S.W. Leavitt, Malcolm K. Hughes, Liu Y. and An Z. 1995. Stable-carbon isotope tree-ring chronologies from Xian, China. In S. Ohta, T. Fujii, N. Okada, M.K. Hughes and D. Eckstein, eds., Tree Rings: From the Past to the Future. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Asian and Pacific Dendrochronology. Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute Scientific Meeting Report 1: 182-186.
(7) Wu Xiangding. 1995. Tree-ring width chronologies and their response to climate in the Qinling Mountains, China. In Sheu D.D., R.S. Bradley and Wang W.-C., eds., High Resolution Records of Past Climate from Monsoon Asia: The Last 2000 Years and Beyond. Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 5(3): 365-372.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/pi/ts/chinensis.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 11-Feb-1999