Chinese Plum Yew Or Fortune's Plum

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A Wollemi Pine imposter? Cephalotaxus fortunei 三尖杉 Chinese Plum Yew or Fortune’s Plum Yew When the Wollemi Pine was first discovered, such was its similarity to an evergreen conifer from the forests of central and south-western China, that it was thought to be a garden Cephalotaxus fortunei escapee, the Chinese Plum Yew (Cephalotaxus Chinese Plum Yew fortunei). However, the Wollemi Pine is a magnificent tall tree; the imposter, the Chinese Plum Yew, grows as a shrub, or at most a small tree, 4 – 5 metres tall. The name, Plum Yew, refers to leaves that are not unlike those of Yew trees (Taxus spp.) and the fleshy arils on female plants resemble small plums1. The Plum Yew was introduced to Britain in 1848 by the Wollemi Pine Scottish plant collector, Robert Fortune, who infamously orchestrated the illegal shipment of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) from China to India for the British East India Company2. And of course, Cephalotaxus fortunei was named after Fortune. It is widely planted in cool, temperate parks and gardens of the world. There are ~ 11 species in the genus Cephalotaxus, all from eastern Asia, from the Himalayas, through China to Japan and south to the Malay Peninsula. There is also fossil evidence that the genus was once more widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere1. Look for the Chinese Plum Yew in the eastern extension of the Biological Sciences Courtyard Garden. 1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalotaxus_fortunei 2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fortune Map: modified from Encyclopedia of Life: http://eol.org/pages/1059913/maps Kevin Downing, Brian Atwell & Alison Downing, Department of Biological Sciences, August 2013 Natural distribution of Cephalotaxus fortunei, the Chinese Plum Yew, in central and south-western China. .

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Cephalotaxus
Reprinted from the Winter 1970 issue of t'he THE AMERICA HORTICULTURAL \t{AGAZIl\'E Copyright 1970 by The American Horticultural Society, Inc. Cephalotaxus Source of Harringtonine, A Promising New Anti..Cancer Alkaloid ROBERT E. PERDUE, JR.,l LLOYD A. SPETZMAN,l and RICHARD G. POWELL2 The plumyews (Cephalotaxus) are yew-like evergreen trees and shrubs. The genus includes seven species native to southeastern Asia from Japan and Korea to Taiwan and Hainan, and west through China to northeastern India. Two species are in cultivation in the United States, C. harringtoniaJ (Fig. 1 & 2) of which there are several varieties (one often listed as C. drupacea) , and C. fortunii (Fig. 3). The cultivars are shrubs up to about 20 feet in height; most have broad crowns. The linear and pointed leaves are spirally arranged or in two opposite ranks. The upper sur Fig. 1. Japanese plumyew (Cephalo face is dark shiny green with a conspicu taxus harringtonia var. drupacea), an ous mid-rib; the lower surface has a evergreen shrub about 6 ft. high, at broad silvery band on either side of the the USDA Plant Introduction Station, mid-rib. These bands are made up of Glenn Dale, Maryland. This photo conspicuous white stomata arranged in graph was made in 1955. The plant is numerous distinct lines. Leaf length is now about 7 ft. high, but the lower variable, from about one inch in varie branches have been severely pruned ties of C. harringtonia to three or four to provide material for chemical re inches in C. fortunii. The leaves are search.
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