Keteleeria davidiana
Credits
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'Keteleeria davidiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
K. davidiana [Bertrand] Beissn. is another species native of W. China. It was introduced to Kew by Henry in 1889, and Wilson found it and introduced it again in 1908. The young shoots differ from those of K. fortunei in remaining downy for two years or more. According to Wilson’s specimens of adult plants, the leaves of cone-bearing or adult branches differ from those of K. fortunei in becoming blunt and conspicuously notched at the apex, and in having the midrib sunken above. The cone-scales are also more reflexed at the margin. Wilson found cones 8 in. long.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
K. davidiana – specimens: Wakehurst Place, Sussex, 46 × 3 ft (1984) and 41 × 2 ft (1982); Leonardslee, Sussex, 40 × 23⁄4 ft (1984); National Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, Eire, 26 × 21⁄2 ft (1980); Headfort, Co. Meath, Eire, 30 × 5 ft (1980).
According to F. Flous, it is not only in this species that the leaves become blunt and notched on coning trees; they do so also in K. fortunei. The difference she gives is in the length of the leaves: 15 to 25 mm long in K. fortunei against 15 to 40 mm in K. davidiana; another difference adduced is that in the former the leaves have fifteen to twenty lines of stomata in each band beneath, against twelve to fifteen in the latter.
var. formosana (Hayata) Hayata
This variety differs from the type in that the shoots are glabrous, the leaf scars protrude noticeably from the branchlets, and the leaf apex is acute or obtuse, rather than truncate or emarginate. The cones are shorter, the bract scales are spathulate and contracted above the midpoint, and the seed is narrower than in the type. Hayata 1914, Farjon 1989, Fu et al. 1999c. Distribution TAIWAN. Habitat Mixed mesophytic forest between 300 and 900 m asl. In northern Taiwan, var. formosana occurs in small groups or as isolated individuals on steep ridge crests. It survives coppicing. USDA Hardiness Zone 9. Conservation status Endangered. Illustration Li & Keng 1994a, Fu et al. 1999c, Flanagan & Kirkham 2005; NT426. Cross-reference K154.
Keteleeria davidiana var. formosana is in cultivation from seed collected in 1992 by Kirkham & Flanagan (ETOT 108) at Pinlin in Taiwan. This area, at 680 m, with about 200 trees growing on sticky reddish loam, is one of only two localities for this endangered endemic taxon. Seedlings from ETOT 108 were distributed relatively widely to arboreta in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but it has failed to establish outside at Kew, and survives there only in the Temperate House.
