Taiwania
Taiwanie ( Taiwania cryptomerioides )
The Taiwanie ( Taiwania cryptomerioides ) is an evergreen coniferous tree of the family of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ). It is the only species of the genus Taiwania, which was formerly made up of representatives from different distribution areas, which had ever been awarded a separate species status. The three natural distribution areas are located in Taiwan, in a contiguous area in southern China and Myanmar as well as in Vietnam. The oldest finds of fossils that can not be distinguished from Taiwania cryptomerioides come from Alaska and are up to 110 million years old. More and younger fossils from America, Europe and Asia show a geologically much more widely used. The Taiwanie today is widely recognized as endangered and is even threatened with extinction in Vietnam. They reached an age of over 1600, probably 2000 years and, with a height of up to 70 meters of the largest trees in Asia. The wood is used for building houses and making furniture and coffins, earning her the English name tree coffin ( coffin tree ) earned. The Taiwanie was chosen by the International Dendrology Society ( IDS) Tree of the Year 2010.
- 3.1 chalk
- 3.2 Paleogene
- 3.3 Neogen
- 3.4 Quaternary
- 7.1 Literature
- 7.2 Notes and references
Description
Appearance
The Taiwanie is an evergreen, monoecious tree, the heights of 60 to 65, rarely reaches 70 meters. The trunk is straight and reaches a diameter of 3 to 4 feet from the trunk starting with its strong buttress roots. The bark of larger trees is comparatively thin and peels off in thin strips and flakes. It will eventually cracked, reddish brown to brown and discolored under influence of weather gray. The branches are spread or ascending. Low standing, foliage -bearing branches are more or less pendulous, forming in younger trees a conical or pyramidal crown. Older trees have a domed or flat crown.
The leaves are alternate or spirally arranged, with short running down the leaf base and are dependent on the age of the trees, different shape and color. Younger trees with heights up to about 15 meters and young twigs have long, pfriemliche and sickle-shaped curved, at least 5 but usually 10 to 24 mm long and 1.5 to 3.5 millimeters wide leaves that are wider towards the base. You have spiny leaf tips are expiring, laterally flattened and have a keeled top and bottom. The color is blue-green, and they have both sides three to six stomatal strips. The leaves are at an angle of 40 ° to 70 ° from the branches off and retained about 30 years. Older branches have short lanceolate - spatula -shaped, 3-7 mm long and 1.2 to 3 millimeters wide, full leaves leaves. They are acute or obtuse, curved, free-standing or almost pressed. Both sides are glossy dark green to glossy green. The upper side shows eight to 13 gap opening rows, the bottom six to nine rows on each side.
Flowers and Fruit
The pollen cones grow in terminal groups of three to five, rarely from two to seven and cones on branches with scale-like leaves. They are ovate - roundish and 2 to 3 millimeters long. The numerous Mikrosporophylle are spirally arranged, shield-shaped and usually three, rarely two or four abaxial pollen sacs. The seed cones grow singly at the ends of branches and mature within one year to elliptical to cylindrical, brown cones from 9 to 25, but usually 12 to 20 centimeters in length with diameters from 6 to 11 millimeters. The 12 to 25, usually 14 to 20 go bracts at the base gradually over the scale- like leaves of the branches. You are wrong triangular to almost the spatula -shaped, 6-10 mm long and 5-8 mm wide. They are towards the base wedge-shaped and yellowish to reddish brown; matt brown towards the tip and mucronate. The cones are 14 to 30 seeds, ie one to two Deckschuppe formed. The seeds are ovate -oblong, flat, light brown to tan in color and without wings 4 mm long and 2-3 mm wide. The two, 1 to 2 millimeters wide wings are translucent, slightly overlap and surround the seeds. Pollination takes place from April to May, the pins ripen from October to November.
Chromosome number
The chromosome number is 2n = 22
Distribution and ecology
The natural distribution areas are located in Nantou County in Taiwan, China, in the northwest of Yunnan Province and to the southeast of Tibet, in northeastern Myanmar and Vietnam in the district in the province of Van Ban Lào Cai.
The Taiwanie grows in mountain forests at altitudes of 1750-2900 meters. It grows mostly in small groups in sheltered valleys and reached an age of over 1600 years, and possibly up to 2000 years. So they survived most other species and forest destruction can use such as fires, to redistribute themselves. It grows on yellow or red, acidic soils that are formed by the weathering of granite or conglomerates. The climate is strongly influenced by the monsoon with annual rainfall exceeding 4000 mm in China and reach 3000 mm in Vietnam.
In Taiwan, it grows in the cool coniferous forest belt along with the false cypress Chamaecyparis formosensis and Chamaecyparis obtusa var formosana as the dominant art also growing in the field scattered representatives of Calocedrus formosana, Cunninghamia konishii, the Taiwan spruce (Picea morrisonicola ), the Chinese Douglas Fir ( Pseudotsuga sinensis), the Himalayan yew ( Taxus wallichiana ) and the Chinese hemlock ( Tsuga chinensis) and deciduous trees of the genus certificate chestnut ( Castanopsis ), the oaks (Quercus ) and the wheel beam ( Trochodendron aralioides ). The bushes usually consists of Camellia brevistyla, species of the genus Rhododendron, Eurya and blueberries (Vaccinium ). The bamboo Yushania niitakeyamensis covered larger areas. As mycorrhizal partners Scutellospora calospora and representatives of the genus Glomus were identified, which are among the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
In Yunnan and Myanmar Taiwanie grows in coniferous mixed forests with Abies forrestii, the Sargent - Spruce ( Picea brachytyla ), the Chinese larch (Larix potaninii ), the Chinese Douglas Fir ( Pseudotsuga sinensis) and the Himalayan Hemlock ( Tsuga dumosa ). The shrubbery consists of Fortunes Kopfeibe ( Cephalotaxus fortunei ), the Himalayan yew ( Taxus wallichiana ) and the Great Nutmeg ( Torreya grandis var yunnanensis ). All the trees are heavily covered by the lichen Usnea longissima, mosses and liverworts. As deciduous trees grow especially at lower altitudes species of the genus of the maples (Acer), the apparent chestnut ( Castanopsis ), oak (Quercus ), Magnolia (Magnolia ), Schima and the flour berries ( Sorbus ). The shrubbery consists of rhododendron species and other genera.
In Vietnam, they are found in evergreen mountain forests, where prevail representatives of the beech family ( Fagaceae ), the laurel family ( Lauraceae ) and species of the magnolia family ( Magnoliaceae ). As the only major conifer occurs Fujian cypress ( Fokienia hodginsii ).
More scattered collections of less than 100 copies exist in secondary forests in China, as in the southeast of Guizhou, southwest of Hubei, in the southeast of Sichuan and in the north of Fujian at lower elevations 750-1200 m. These stocks tend to be small and are located in different climate zones than in the other areas, one therefore assumes that they were naturalized.
Botanical history
Show fossils from the Cretaceous to the Pliocene in that Taiwanie for a very long time was a rare but widespread species. From the fossil record, the species can not be uniquely determined, but the shape of the found branches, cones and needles is within the range of variation of today's Taiwania cryptomerioides. The fossils were partially described as a distinct species, the findings on Spitsbergen Paleocene as Taiwania schaeferi Schloemer - Jäger, finds from the Eocene of China as Taiwania fushunensis (endo ) Koidzumi, finds from Japan as Taiwania japonica ( Thunberg ex Lf) D. Don Taiwania eocenica Matsuo, Taiwania paracryptomeroides Kilpper and Taiwania mesocryptomeroides Matsuo, and finds from Siberia as Taiwania microphylla Sveshnikova & Budantsev and Taiwania cretacea Samylina.
Chalk
The oldest finds are from the northwest Alaska, from the Albian ( Lower Cretaceous ) and are 110-100 million years old. The oldest finds are from Asia 100-90 million years old (from the Cenomanian and Turonian Upper Cretaceous ) and come from the coastal areas in eastern Russia. The absence of older findings from Russia suggests that it has only been a land bridge across the Bering Strait between America and Asia from the upper Cretaceous, as evidenced by other finds of plants and animals. This means that the range of the species of 63 ° extending to 75 ° north latitude, and coincides with that of other genera, such Pseudolarix, Glyptostrobus and Metasequoia. The mean annual temperatures ranged 13-20 ° Celsius. Other finds from the Late Cretaceous originate from Japan (36 ° to 43 ° north latitude ) and are about 90 to 83 million years ( Coniacian and Santonian ) and 75 million to 70 million years ( Maastrichtian ) age. The mean annual temperature was about 20 ° Celsius.
Paleogene
In the transition period to the Paleogene, the climate in North America was wetter and warmer. The Taiwanie spread from Alaska east to in the Arctic regions of present-day Canada and to Spitzbergen, which was connected at that time over Greenland with North America. From there come 65-55 million year old finds from the Paleocene. During this time, the distribution area reached the largest density ranged from 33 ° to 80 ° north latitude in sub-tropical to cool - temperate climate. It does not spread like some species of deciduous trees on up to continental Europe. In America, the type could hold in high northern latitudes, at least until the mid- Eocene, as discoveries prove on the opposite northern Canada Axel Heiberg Iceland. After that date, however, are missing the fossil record.
However, at the beginning of the Oligocene the type came from the East to West Siberia and Europe. A prerequisite was the drying up of a shallow estuary (English: Turgai Street) separated between the Tethys Ocean and the Arctic Sea, the West and East Asia, coupled with a general cooling of the climate from about 34 million years ago. Fossils from this period were in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Germany found (near Leipzig and near Bautzen ).
Neogen
In the Miocene the climate became colder and drier and the Taiwanie disappeared from Western Siberia. In Europe, however, they could still keep in drier areas in the otherwise rather damp surroundings, so there are fossils from several areas in Germany ( as near Bautzen, Kreuzau and Eschweiler ), from Bulgaria and Russia of that time. The most recent fossils from Europe date from the early Pliocene and were found near Castell'Arquato in Italy.
In Japan, the type could be detected in the Miocene on Honshu and Hokkaido. In Hokkaido they disappeared in the Pliocene, but could initially keep on Honshu and Kyushu, where they also disappeared at the end of the Pliocene. The causes for the disappearance of the species was less the cooler but rather the drier climate at that time.
The recent fossil finds from the east and southeast continental Asia, to which the present distribution areas include, date from the Oligocene, which raises the question of how today's inventories have developed. Genetic studies of the DNA of the chloroplasts show a close relationship of the representatives in the distribution area on the border between China and Myanmar, Vietnam, and the scattered herds in other areas of China. Between these stocks a genetic exchange may have taken place before about a million years. The DNA of the chloroplasts to the stocks in Taiwan are more different, suggesting million years ago, about 3 to 3.5 on a separation of the distribution areas in Taiwan and mainland China. This separation of the range coincides with the accelerated rise of the Qinghai- Xizang Plateau and the Himalayas in the late Pliocene, which led to a drier and cooler climate in general. Stocks at Taiwan could be done either on the dry at the beginning of the Pleistocene strait from the mainland or on the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The holdings on the mainland were probably pushed back in the early and middle Pleistocene glaciation during the Ice Age through increased further, which has led to the further splitting of the range, where the species could survive only in refuge space.
Threats and conservation
The distribution of Taiwanie was still significantly greater than 500 years ago. However, it was often like because of its valuable timber, bringing the inventories were reduced by at least 30-49 %. However, the present stocks are largely stable. It is, however, performed in the IUCN Red List as endangered ( "vulnerable ").
In China, especially the collections were greatly reduced in the south in the last 100 years, but the species has naturalized outside the natural range. The stocks are estimated to total 55,000 copies, which is not clear how many of them are fully grown. Especially in Yunnan old stocks have been cut down to the year 2000. Since 2001, the felling of trees in China is prohibited.
In Vietnam, you know the kind only from an area of about 3 square kilometers, in which are about 100 trees. These are threatened with extinction due to their small numbers ( " critically endangered "). The area is destroyed by burning one hand to for cattle pastures to win grassland, on the other hand, stocks are being cleared. It is estimated that about 80% of such habitats have been destroyed. The distribution area is in any protected zone, but work is going through the local forest protection agency and other groups on a protection program for existing stocks. In addition, seed banks were created to allow reforestation.
Little is known about the stocks in Myanmar, but trees are in some areas, for example, on the western slopes of Gaoligong Shan, like extensively because of its valuable timber.
In Taiwan, new, extensive distribution areas were discovered in the southeast of the island, in total there are on the island about 10,000 full-grown specimens. Through the Yu- Shan National Park was founded in 1984 the trees some sites are protected, but other sites were at the same time cut down.
Systematics and history of research
The Taiwanie ( Taiwania cryptomerioides ) is a species in the monotypic genus Taiwania in the family of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ). The genus name Taiwania refers to the area of distribution in Taiwan. The specific epithet is derived from the genus cryptomerioides names of Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria ) because the leaves of young trees are similar to those of Japanese cedar.
The species was first described scientifically by Hayata Bunzo in 1906 in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. As a distinctive feature, it refers to the unique shape of cones, which is similar to the power take the form of Cunninghamia about in the structure and in the form of seeds and wings, but it is clearly distinguishable by the number of ovules per Deckschuppe and by the lack of seed-bearing scales of this. Moreover, the habit of the equivalent of Cryptomeria. These features led Hayata, the species does not assign the genus Cunninghamia, but establish a new genus Taiwania. The material used for the description was found by the botanist Konishi Nariaki as early as 1904 in 2000 meters altitude at the time Mount Morrison, Yu Shan today called Mountain on Taiwan. Hayata Bunzo (1874-1934) was a Japanese botanist at the Tokyo Imperial University and examined during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945), the flora of the island. He himself felt the first description of the species as his greatest contribution to botany. He honored Konishi 1908 by the epithet of Cunninghamia konishii, which today often only as a variety of fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata var konishii ) substance.
Parts of young Taiwanien were already in 1886 by DJ Attributed to Anderson in China, collected in western Yunnan, cultured trees, however, the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) and stored as such in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Other early collections, it was in 1912 by M. Kyaw for JH Lace and 1915 by J. S. Gamble in Myanmar. 1916 was the Austrian botanist Heinrich Handel - Mazzetti copies in Yunnan. His material was used in 1939 by Henri Marcel Gaussen to define their own type Taiwania flousiana, which cryptomerioides should differ by the size and the number of scales of seed cones of Taiwania. Later used Gen'ichi Koidzumi order to describe the same material as a kind of Taiwania yunnanensis. He led differences in the structure of the seed wing as a differentiator. Another collection was also conducted in 1918 in Yunnan by the Scottish botanist George Forrest. The British botanist Henry John Elwes (1846-1922) was the first western dendrologist, who saw in their natural habitat type 1912. Ernest Wilson took the first copies with the West.
The highly spatially separate distribution area in Yunnan and Myanmar to the west and Taiwan in the East is probably the main reason for the division into several types Taiwania cryptomerioides, Taiwania yunnanensis and Taiwania flousiana which was based on differences in the size of the pins and the number of seed scales. However, a carefully executed by comparison Aljos Farjon could find no consistent differences in the morphology of representatives of the two areas. Specimens from the later discovered range in Vietnam also fit well into the scheme. Therefore, the names Taiwania flousiana Gaussen and Taiwania yunnanensis Koidz. only understood as synonyms.
The genus was initially together with the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) and fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata), the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), the giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum), the dawn redwood ( Metasequoia glyptostroboides ) and the Chinazypresse ( Glyptostrobus pensilis ), the scales of spruce assigned ( Athrotaxis ) and the bald cypress (Taxodium ) the family considered as independent of the swamp cypress family ( Taxodiaceae Warming ). These genera are now counted among the cypress family, the genus Taiwania, Cunninghamia and Athrotaxis be placed in each mono generic subfamilies ( Taiwanioideae, Cunninghamioideae, Athrotaxoideae ). After molecular genetic and morphological studies, the genus Taiwania is a sister taxon to all other members of the cypress family, with the exception of Cunninghamia, which is a sister taxon to all other members of the cypress family. For the cypress family arise after this study relationships as they are shown in the following cladogram. The cladogram is confirmed by purely morphological studies, among others on the cover and seed scales of the cones.
Cunninghamia
Taiwania
Athrotaxis
Sequoioideae ( Metasequoia, Sequoia, Sequoiadendron )
Taxodioideae (Cryptomeria, Glyptostrobus, Taxodium )
Callitroideae ( Actinostrobus, Callitris, Neocallitropsis, Diselma, Fitzroya, Widdringtonia, Austrocedrus, Libocedrus, Pilgerodendron, Papuacedrus )
Cupressoideae ( Calocedrus, Microbiota, Platycladus, Tetraclinis, Chamaecyparis, Cupressus, Juniperus, Fokienia, Thuja, Thujopsis )
Use
The wood of the Taiwanie is very durable. It is especially known for the production of coffins. In Vietnam it is used together with the wood of Fujian cypress ( Fokienia hodginsii ) for the construction of houses, especially for preparing the roof beams. Some of the wood is decorative provided with pale yellow and red annual rings and is then popular for the manufacture of furniture.
Ingredients from the timber to be tested for biological pest control. For example, could an inhibitory effect of essential oils of Taiwanie on termites ( Coptotermes formosanus by ) are observed. Also there are such effects against bacteria, fungi and mites.
The species was cultivated in China long before the scientific description in 1906 outside the natural range. In Europe, Japan, North America and New Zealand, it was introduced as an ornamental tree, where it grows well in temperate zones with no or only a light frost. Despite the attractive shape and the decorative foliage of young trees it is rarely used. They are found in Central Europe usually only in botanical gardens and arboretums. In Germany, a copy of the Botanical Garden Bonn, more in Freiburg, Essen and the Rhine- Main region growing. In Switzerland there is a copy in the Botanical Garden of the University of Basel.