Yunnan Catkin Yew

An endangered species in China. The wood is used in house building, in making furniture and agricultural implements, and as a carving material; the species is also cultivated as an ornamental tree.

Trees to 15 m tall; trunk to 25 cm d.b.h.; main branches spreading to form a broad, ovoid crown. Leafy branchlets ascending, broadly oblong-ovate in outline, ca. 8 × 12 cm, axis green in 1st year, thereafter light yellow to light yellowish brown, ridged. Leaves borne at ca. 60° to branchlet axis, subsessile, linear, linear-lanceolate, or linear-elliptic, usually straight, sometimes slightly falcate distally, 3.5-10(-15) × 0.8-1.5 cm, thick and leathery, midvein prominently raised adaxially, 1-2 mm wide abaxially, stomatal bands brown or pale yellowish white when dry, 3-4 mm wide, at least 2 × as wide as marginal bands, very dense, in ca. 40 rows, marginal bands 1.5-2 mm wide, base broadly cuneate or obtuse, margin slightly downcurved, apex obtuse on basal 1-3 leaves of each branchlet, tapered on others. Pollen-cone racemes borne 4-6 together, 10-15 cm; bracts 16-20 in 4 rows of 4(or 5), keeled, distal bract 8-9 × 4-5 mm; pollen sacs (4-)6 or 7(or 8). Aril reddish purple when ripe, slightly white powdery, 2.2-3 × 1.4-1.5 cm. Seed ellipsoid, shortly beaked at apex; peduncle ca. 1.5 cm, relatively thick, flattened proximally but quadrangular distally. Pollination Apr, seed maturity Oct.

SW Guizhou (Xingyi Xian), SE Yunnan [N Vietnam]

Forming small patches of pure forest on limestone mountains; 1000-1600 m.

Amentotaxus argotaenia (Hance) Pilger var. yunnanensis (H. L. Li) P. C. Keng.

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Amentotaxus yunnanensis, the Yunnan catkin yew, is a species of conifer in the yew family, Taxaceae. It is native to Laos, Vietnam, and Guizhou and Yunnan in China.

It is a medium-sized tree to 15 m (49 ft) tall. Remaining populations are small and threatened by logging.