Line drawing (Li 1975).
There are some good photos at the Oregon State University Landscape Plants site.
There are also some good photos at the National Parks of Taiwan Biodiversity Database.
Line drawing (Li 1975).
There are some good photos at the Oregon State University Landscape Plants site.
There are also some good photos at the National Parks of Taiwan Biodiversity Database.
Pseudotsuga wilsoniana
台湾黄杉 tai wan huang shan (Wu and Raven 1999), Wei's imperial fir, Taiwan imperial fir, Taiwan Douglas-fir.
Syn.: P. sinensis var. wilsoniana (Hayata) Fu & Li 1997, P. salvadorii Flous 1936 (Wu and Raven 1999). See the discussion in Pseudotsuga regarding the molecular systematics of this species; it has nuclear DNA derived from both the P. brevifolia and the P. japonica-P. sinensis clades, suggesting a hybrid origin.
Trees to 50 m tall and 200 cm dbh. Bark gray or dark gray, irregularly and thickly scaly, corky (Li 1975, Wu and Raven 1999). "Branchlets initially pale yellow or yellowish gray, aging gray, usually glabrous or slightly pubescent on main branchlets and densely pubescent on lateral branchlets. Leaves pectinately arranged, linear, (1.3-)2-2.5(-3) cm × ca. 2 mm, stomatal bands abaxial, gray-green, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Seed cones pale purple, glaucous, maturing purplish brown, ovoid to ellipsoid-or conical-ovoid, 3.5-8 × 2-4.5 cm. Seed scales at middle of cones semiorbicular, flabellate, or reniform, 2.5-3 × 3.2-4.5(-5) cm, rusty brown pubescent abaxially, base broadly cuneate or almost truncate, concave at sides. Bracts reflexed, cusp narrowly triangular, ca. 3 mm, apex obtuse. Seeds irregularly brown spotted abaxially, triangular-ovoid, slightly depressed, densely rusty brown pubescent adaxially; wing obliquely ovate or semitrullate [1.5-2 cm long including wing]. Pollination Apr, seed maturity Oct-Nov" (Wu and Raven 1999).
Taiwan, scarce, scattered in the island at altitudes of 800-2500 m, usually mixing with other trees (Li 1975). It is reported from Hualien, Miaoli, Taichung, and Xinchu Xian at 1400 to 2500 m in (a) broadleaf forest, (b) mixed Tsuga, Chamaecyparis, Pinus and Fagaceae forest; and (c) exposed rocky slopes (HAST 1999).
Pseudotsuga of Asia; P. wilsoniana in brown. Distribution data from GBIF, 2021.02.22.
The IUCN regards P. wilsoniana as synonymous with the far more widespread taxon Pseudotsuga_sinensis var. sinensis, and their assessment for that taxon makes no mention of its status in Taiwan.
It is widely distributed in Yushan and Taroko National Parks (National Parks of Taiwan Biodiversity Database 2021).
Taiwan: Reported in Taiwan at the following locations: (a) 121°20'E, 24°35'N; (b) Sheipa National Park 121°12'16"E 24°28'08"N; (c) Yushan National Park at 121°05'40"E, 23°22'48"N; 121°14'34"E, 24°15'40"N; 121°21'06"E, 24°22'30"N (HAST 1999). Shei-Pa and Yushan National Parks look like good places to see it.
The epithet honors the collector, E. H. Wilson (1876-1930), famous east Asian plant-hunter in the "Indiana Jones" tradition (except he was known as "Chinese Wilson"); he wrote a number of engaging books about his adventures, such as A Naturalist in Western China. Rehder (1930) remembers, "he was a born plant collector; endowed with a strong physique, robust health, indomitable will power and a deep love of plants he succeeded in collecting and introducing into cultivation a greater number of plants than any other collector."
Herbarium of the Research Center For Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taipei [HAST]. 1999. Database output at http://www2.sinica.edu.tw:8080/hast/eindex.html, accessed 1999.03.15, now defunct.
Rehder, Alfred. 1930. Ernest Henry Wilson. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 11(4):180-192. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2020.11.28 (includes photo).
Huang 1994 (the Flora of Taiwan).
Last Modified 2023-02-26
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