"Pl. 171. Taxus mairei (Lemee & L'ev) S.Y.Hu (Taxaceae)" (3).
"Taxus celebica" bark (2).
"Taxus celebica" foliage and fruits (2).
Sunlit underside of foliage on a tree in the Seattle arboretum. Width of view 10 cm; needles about 3 cm long [C.J. Earle].
Common Names
Chinese yew (4); thaner (1), rakhal (Punjab area), tingschi (rest of India), deodar (=God's tree) (6); tampinur batu [Karo]; kaju tadji [Mt. Dempo] (5).Taxonomic notes
Syn: Cephalotaxus sumatrana Miq.; Podocarpus celebicus Hemsl.; Cephalotaxus celebica Warb.; Cephalotaxus mannii (not Hook. f.) Pritzel ex Diels; Taxus baccata (not L.) Masters; Taxus baccata ssp. cuspidata var. chinensis Pilger; Taxus baccata ssp. wallichiana (not Zucc.) Pilger; Taxus baccata var. sinensis Henry; Taxus wallichiana (not Zucc.) Foxworthy; Tsuga. mairei Lemée & Léeveillé; Taxus cuspidata var. chinensis (Pilger) Rehder & Wilson; Taxus cuspidata (not Sieb. & Succ.) Kaneh.; Taxus chinensis (Pilger) Rehder; Taxus wallichiana var. chinensis (Pilger) Florin; Taxus speciosa Florin; Taxus mairei (Lemée & Léeveillé) Hu & Liu; T. celebica (Wall.) Li; T. yunnanensis Cheng, Cheng & Fu (5).We have the usual Taxus problem here; whether morphologically similar taxa should be distinguished as species, varieties, or otherwise. This treatment follows de Laubenfels (5) in designating a single species of Asian yew, but further work on the taxon is clearly required.
Description
Evergreen shrub or tree to 14 m tall, wide and bushy when cultivated (4). "Leaves linear-lanceolate, falcate, spirally arranged, spreading in two ranks, about 1.2-2.7 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad, abruptly pointed at the apex, the base decurrent, yellowish green above, pale green beneath. Seeds drupe-like, the fleshy arillate coat reddish at maturity, ripening in the first season (November). Trunk bark grayish red, with flimsy longitudinal commissure-like chinks, exfoliating in irregular flakes and leaving scars with dachytogram-like streaks on the trunk, flakes about 1.5 mm. thick; lenticels inconspicuous; outer bark about 0.4-1.6 mm., membranous or fibrous, with a reddish brown to orange yellow cross-section; phelloderm more or less conspicuous; inner bark 0.5-0.8 cm. thick, pink finely fibrous; freshly cut cambium and newly formed phloem colorless, transparent, becoming pale orange yellow after cutting. Freshly cut sapwood pale apricot yellow, wood rays inconspicuous" (2).Range
Himal: Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, India, Bhutan, Burma and China at 1500 to 3100 m elevation (2); also Vietnam at 400-2150 m elevation (1); also Sumatra, Philippines, Celebes at 1400-2300 m in moist subtropical forests, tropical highland ridges and moss forests in the subcanopy, locally dominant (5); also Taiwan, in northern and central parts of the island at elevations of 1000-3000 m (2).Big Tree
De Laubenfels (5) offers a photograph of a specimen photographed in 1933 on Mt. Bonthain, Celebes, that appears to be ca. 200 cm dbh. V. Dinets reports: "The largest one I've seen was in Mekong Canyon on Tibet/Yunnan border: 15+ m high, 30-40 cm dbh. Another tree in Kali Gandaki Gorge, Nepal was ±50 cm dbh, but only 7-8 m high" (7).Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Used for bedsteads, jampan poles, unholstery, clogs, whip handles, and of course bows. The bark is used to make a red dye. Venerated and used in religious ceremonies in parts of the northwest Himal (6).Observations
Taroko National Park looks like an interesting place to see it.Remarks
The red spot a Brahmin places in the center of the forehead is made with a paste of powdered yew bark and oil (2).Listed (as T. chinensis and T. wallichiana) as threatened in Viet Nam by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
Citations
(1) Silba 1986.(2) Liu 1970.
(3) Li 1975.
(4) "Chinese yew," Britannica Online.
(5) de Laubenfels 1988.
(6) Hartzell 1991 (as T. wallichiana).
(7) Vladimir Dinets, e-mail communication, 10-Jan-1998 (as T. wallichiana).
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/ta/ta/sumatrana.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 11-Jan-1999