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Taiwania

Family

Taxodiaceae

A genus of one or two species; if two, one (the type) in Formosa and the other, closely related to it, in the Chinese province of Yunnan and bordering Burma. Leaves of young trees strongly resembling those of Cryptomeria, but on coning trees thick and appressed. Cones terminal, 12 in. or slightly more long, with twelve to twenty scales; seeds winged, usually two on each fertile scale.


From the Supplement (Vol. V)

On page 552, in the third paragraph, it was stated that the mainland race of the taiwania was first collected by Lace in Burma, in 1916. However, Dr Page of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, has recently found in the Kew herbarium a semi-juvenile shoot of this conifer, mounted with some miscellaneous cryptomeria specimens. This was collected by A. D. Johnson, almost certainly near Tengyueh (Tengchung) in Yunnan, on 28 May 1868, thirty-six years before the discovery of this genus in Formosa (Taiwan). It is worth recording that the genus Calocedrus was founded by Kurz on a specimen collected by Johnson during the same expedition (Kew Bulletin, Vol. 34(3), pp. 527-8 (1980)).

T. cryptomeriodes specimens: Wakehurst Place, Sussex, 26 × 1[1/4] ft (1982); National Pinetum, Bedgebury, Kent, pl. 1935, 16 × 1[1/2] ft (1978, but at least 20 ft high by 1985); Cockington Court, Devon, 30 × 1[1/2] (1984); Killerton, Devon, 50 × 2[1/4] ft (1983); Crathes Castle, Ayrs., 18 × 2[3/4] (1981); Headfort, Co. Meath, Eire, 30 × 2[3/4] ft (1980).

Species articles