Pseudotsuga forrestii Craib

An evergreen tree 60 to 80 ft high, with more or less downy young shoots. Leaves 1 to nearly 2 in. long, 1⁄12 in. wide, notched at the tips, grooved on the upper surface, marked with a whitish band of stomata at each side of the prominent midrib beneath. Cones 2 to 21⁄2 in. long, 11⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. wide, egg-shaped, distinctly stalked. The exposed, three-lobed part of the bracts is bent sharply back over the scales, the central lobe awl-shaped, the side ones triangular.

Native of Yunnan, China; discovered in 1914 by Forrest in mixed forests in the Mekong Valley at 10,000 ft, and introduced by him at the same time under F.13003. Plants were raised in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, at Leonardslee and at Caerhays, but it has always been very rare in collections, being susceptible to damage by spring frosts. According to the Austrian botanist Handel-Mazzetti, who saw this tree during his travels in Yunnan, it is of a cedar-like habit in the wild, with horizontally spreading branches, and has a smooth bark.

In describing P. forrestii, Craib compared it to P. sinensis, giving as the difference that in P. forrestii the leaves are longer, the cones larger, and the bracts much longer. It is even more closely allied to P. wilsoniana (see below).