Pseudotaxus W.C. Cheng

One of several monospecific coniferous genera endemic to central and southern China, the sole species was originally described as a species of Taxus (T. chienii W.C. Cheng) in 1934. Indeed, Pseudotaxus and Taxus have been shown to be one another’s closest relative, but Pseudotaxus differs from its more familiar cousin in several characters, most conspicuously in the rapidly browning branchlets, the broad, bright white stomatal bands on the needle undersides, the white arils, and paired basal bracts on pollen and seed cones (Eckenwalder 2009).

Cheng authored the new genus Pseudotaxus in 1947, and P. chienii remains the sole species. P. liana was described in 1996 (Silba 1996) with thicker, more leathery and ovate leaves but these differences were shown by Wang & Yang (2007) to fall within the variation of P. chienii.