Taxus cuspidata

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Plant Characteristics
Habit   tree

Height: 50 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 50.
Width: 20 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
Lifespan: perennial
Cultivation
Exposure: sun
Features: evergreen
USDA Zones: 4 to 9
Scientific Names

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cuspidata >

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Taxus wallichiana (syn. Taxus baccata subsp. wallichiana, commonly known as Himalayan Yew) is a species of yew, native to the Himalaya from Afghanistan east to western Yunnan in southwestern China, at altitudes from 2,000–3,500 m.[1][2]

It is a medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree growing to 20 m tall, similar to Taxus baccata and sometimes treated as a subspecies of it. The shoots are green at first, becoming brown after three or four years. The leaves are thin, flat, slightly falcate (sickle-shaped), 1.5–2.7 cm long and 2 mm broad, with a softly mucronate apex; they are arranged spirally on the shoots but twisted at the base to appear in two horizontal ranks on all except for erect lead shoots. It is dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate plants; the seed cone is highly modified, berry-like, with a single scale developing into a soft, juicy red aril 1 cm diameter, containing a single dark brown seed 7 mm long. The pollen cones are globose, 4 mm diameter, produced on the undersides of the shoots in early spring.[2]


Read about Taxus cuspidata in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Taxus cuspidata, Sieb. & Zucc. (T. baccata var. cuspidata, Carr.). Tree, attaining 50 ft., with a trunk usually 2 ft. diam.: bark bright red: branches ascending: lvs. usually falcate, thickish, distinctly and abruptly mucronate, dark green above, pale fulvous green or pale green beneath, 1/2-l in. long: fr. with ovoid seed slightly 3-4-angled and 1/5 in. long. Japan. Very similar to T. baccata, but branches stouter and lvs. darker green above and tinged yellowish beneath, somewhat broader, more abruptly mucronate and thicker in texture. Var. nana, Rehd. (var. brevifolia, Hort. Amer. Var. compacta, Bean). Shrubby form with spreading branches densely clothed with short branchlets: lvs. somewhat shorter and duller, ascending and not or scarcely 2-ranked: slow-growing, rather compact while young, but with age becoming more open. C.L.A. 11:308. F.E. 29:409. Gn. M. 2:11. Var. densa, Rehd. Low form making a dense sometimes almost hemispherical bush with ascending branchlets: lvs. like those of the preceding form. Var. chinensis, Rehd. & Wilson (T. baccata var. chinensis, Pilger). Lvs. more falcate, lighter green, 3/4 – 1 3/4 in. long, convex above with the midrib very slightly raised: seeds broadly ovoid, slightly compressed, slightly 2-angled. Cent. and W. China.—This variety fruits very profusely. The plant offered as var. capitata does not differ from typical T. cuspidata. CH


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.


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Species

Similar plants occurring further east through China to Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines are included in Taxus wallichiana as T. wallichiana var. chinensis (Pilger) Florin by some authors,[3] but are more often treated as a separate species Taxus chinensis.[1][2]

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References

External links


  1. 1.0 1.1 Farjon, A. (1998). World Checklist and Bibliography of Conifers. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ISBN 1-900347-54-7.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rushforth, K. (1987). Conifers. Helm ISBN 0-7470-2801-X.
  3. Flora of China: Taxus wallichiana