Biology:Cathaya
Cathaya is a genus in the pine family, Pinaceae, with one known living species, Cathaya argyrophylla.[1] In foliage and cone morphology, Cathaya has been considered a member of the subfamily Laricoideae, closely related to Pseudotsuga and Larix,[2][3] but more recent genetic studies have suggested a closer relationship to Pinus and Picea in the subfamily Pinoideae.[4][5] A second species, C. nanchuanensis, is now treated as a synonym,[6] as it does not differ from C. argyrophylla in any characters.
Description
Cathaya is confined to a limited area in southern China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and southeast Sichuan. It is an evergreen tree growing to 20 m (66 ft) tall and a trunk up to 60 cm (24 in) diameter, found on steep, narrow mountain slopes at 950–1,800 m (3,100–5,900 ft) altitude on limestone soils.[3] A larger population has been reduced by over-cutting before its scientific discovery and protection in 1950.
The leaves are needle-like, 2.5–5.5 cm (1.0–2.2 in) long, have ciliate (hairy) margins when young, and grow around the stems in a spiral pattern. The cones are 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) long, with about 15–20 scales, each scale bearing two winged seeds.[3]
One or two botanists, unhappy with the idea of a new genus in such a familiar family, tried to shoehorn it into other existing genera, as Pseudotsuga argyrophylla and Tsuga argyrophylla.[7] It is however very distinct from both of these genera, and these combinations are not now used.
The species was introduced into Europe and North America in the 1990s.[8]
Fossil record
The extinct fossil species Cathaya loehri (Engelhardt & Kinkelin) Chun & Kuang is described from the Miocene and Pliocene of Germany and France;[3] other Cathaya fossils are known from the Miocene and Pliocene of eastern Siberia,[3] and from the early Pleistocene of southern Portugal.[9] They are abundant in European brown coal deposits dating from between 10 and 30 million years ago.[3]
References
- ↑ "Cathaya" (in en). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/31964-1.
- ↑ Hu, Y. S.; Wang, F. H. (1984). "Anatomical Studies of Cathaya (Pinaceae)". American Journal of Botany 71 (5): 727–735. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1984.tb14180.x. ISSN 0002-9122.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Farjon, Aljos (1990). Pinaceae. Königstein Champaign: Koeltz scientific books. p. 171–175. ISBN 3-87429-298-3.
- ↑ Yang, Yong; Ferguson, David Kay; Liu, Bing; Mao, Kang-Shan; Gao, Lian-Ming; Zhang, Shou-Zhou; Wan, Tao; Rushforth, Keith et al. (2022). "Recent advances on phylogenomics of gymnosperms and a new classification". Plant Diversity 44 (4): 340–350. doi:10.1016/j.pld.2022.05.003. PMID 35967253.
- ↑ Stull, Gregory W.; Qu, Xiao-Jian; Parins-Fukuchi, Caroline; Yang, Ying-Ying; Yang, Jun-Bo; Yang, Zhi-Yun; Hu, Yi; Ma, Hong et al. (2021-07-19). "Gene duplications and phylogenomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms". Nature Plants 7 (8): 1015–1025. doi:10.1038/s41477-021-00964-4. ISSN 2055-0278. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/05/17/2021.03.13.435279.full.pdf. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
- ↑ "Cathaya nanchuanensis" (in en). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/676697-1.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedpowocarg - ↑ Chun & Kuang (2025-02-10). "Cathaya argyrophylla". https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cathaya/cathaya-argyrophylla/.
- ↑ Forest Context and Policies in Portugal: Present and Future Challenges by Fernando Reboredo – Springer, 28. aug. 2014 – ISBN 978-3-319-08455-8
External links
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