29(3): 32-39 T¹p chÝ Sinh häc 9-2007 Notes on the Cupressaceae in Vietnam Keith Rushforth The Shippen, Ashill, Cullompton, England, EX15 3NL Summary The taxonomy of the species of Cupressaceae indigenous to Vietnam is reviewed. Cupressus tonkinensis Silba is considered the correct name for the Cupressus in Langson province, not Cupressus torulosa . The genus Xanthocyparis is reduced to a subgenus of Cupressus and the new combination Cupressus vietnamensis (Farjon & Hiep) Rushforth made. The genus Fokienia is not considered separable from Chamaecyparis and the combination Chamaecyparis hodginsii (Dunn) Rushforth is made. The conifers associated with Cupressus vietnamensis and their conservation are discussed. Key words: Cupressus; Xanthocyparis; Chamaecyparis; Fokienia; Cupressus tonkinensis; Cupressus vietnamensis; Chamaecyparis hodginsii . The Cupressaceae is now considered by some Kaikinh in Langson province, Vietnam; the authorities to include the Taxodiaceae [7] whilst collection was numbered 5073 and his other treatments [15] maintain the two families specimens are lodged at Paris (P) and New York as separate phylogenetic lines. My personal (NY). Chevalier (1919) identified it as opinion is to consider the Cupressaceae in the Cupressus funebris Endl. Silba (1994, 1998) traditional sense but to question whether described this material as a new species, Hayata's treatment (1932) of the Taxodiaceae as Cupressus tonkinensis . He designated the NY several distinct lineages may not be the most specimen as the holotype and the P specimen as coherent approach - the main difference the isotype. Other authorities (e.g. Farjon 1998, between Quinn's treatment in G adek et al. p 45) have considered Cupressus tonkinensis to (2000) and Hayata's treatment is in the level of be a synonym of Cupressus torulosa D. Don, a the units - Hayata has separate families, Quinn species otherwise known only from the western has subfamilies of Cupressaceae sensu lato. This Himalaya from central Nepal to northwest India paper concerns only the members of the and adjacent southwestern Tibet (Xizang). Luu Cupressaceae sensu stricto - Cupressoideae & Thomas (2004), however, considered it to be Richard ex Sweet (Hortus Britannica: 372, a synonym of Cupressus funebris , though they 1826). expressed one or two reservations; they Four members of the Cupressoideae are concluded that it was definitely not a synonym found in indigenous natural forest in Vietnam. of Cupressus torulosa . Through the courtesy of These have been treated as belonging to the the Curator of the Herbarium at the Royal genera Calocedrus , Cupressus, Fokienia and Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E), I have been able Xanthocyparis . Some others are cultivated, such to borrow the Paris isotype and see a photograph as Cupressus arizonica Greene at Dalat and of the NY specimen. I have compared the Paris Platycladus orientalis (L.f.) Franco at Hanoi. isotype with all the material of Cupressus torulosa in the Edinburgh herbarium. My 1. Cupressus in Langson province observations relate specifically to the Paris isotype, although the photograph of the NY In 1919 Philippe Eberhardt collected holotype appears to be the same. Both material from a tree 8-10 m in height growing at specimens are very fragile and fragmented. 32 The Paris isotype contains both foliage and the cones rounded in outline. The ultimate one-year cones (the photograph of the holotype shoots are radially symmetrical with no shows only foliage). differentiation into facial and lateral leaves and The cones are almost round and have 8 the sprays are three-dimentional, never in two- scales (4 pairs of decussate scales), each scale dimentional or flattened sprays. The foliage on with a small prickle-like umbo. the material of Cupressus torulosa is either The foliage on the most recent growths smooth rounded (terete) or coarse rope-like with contains some shoots which are terete (round as rough regular projections; the coarse rope-like in a cylinder); on these shoots the decussate foliage appears to be correlated with the drier pairs of leaves are indistinguishable. However, inner-valley habitats and the terete foliage with most foliage is in flattened shoots with the moister outer ranges. dimorphic leaves; on these shoots the facial The above considerations shows that (Facial leaves are those facing you when a spray Cupressus tonkinensis is clearly not referable to is laid flat) leaves have an obvious dorsal gland Cupressus torulosa , differing in the cones with and are rhombic in shape; the laterals (Lateral only 8 (cf. 10-12) scales and in the mainly leaves are those at the side when a spray is laid flattened foliage (cf. rounded) with distinct flat) are adpressed with a blunt rounded tip of facial and lateral leaves. Taken with the 0.5 mm with only a weakly defined gland. geographical separation - from Laos to Sikkim! I examined the following material of - Cupressus tonkinensis warrants specific status Cupressus torulosa in the Edinburgh herbarium: and is not a synonym of Cupressus torulosa . Page 10715. Mussoorie Hill Station, India; Cupressus tonkinensis can be distinguished Walter Koelz 20354. United Provinces, India; R. from Cupressus funebris - on the basis of the E. Cooper 5793. Jheri Kulu, Punjab, India; limited material available - by the foliage of Stewart s.n. North West India; A. Anderson s.n.. C. tonkinensis being in flattened and sparse Mussoorie, India; Stainton 7593. Mazana Kulu, fan-shaped sprays and not in the long pendulous Himachal Pradesh, India; Blinkworth (Hb. sprays which characterise Cupressus funebris . Wallich 6046B), Kumaon, North West India; G. Also, the lateral leaves on the Paris isotype have Watt s.n. Thula, India; Hooker & Thomson, s.n.. blunt, adpressed tips, not the acute translucent Simla, India; Noshiro et al. 9455337 and tips to the lateral leaves of Cupressus funebris , 9455353. Dhawalagiri, Mustang, Central Nepal; and the glands on the facial leaves are more Minaki et al. 9106095. Karnali, Dolpa, West pronounced than in typical Cupressus funebris . Nepal; Stainton, Sykes & Williams 3273. The number of cone scales in Cupressus Maikot, Nepal; Stainton, Sykes & Williams funebris ranges from 6-10, thus straddling the 1673. Tajlung, South of Tukucha, Kali Gandaki, range of Cupressus tonkinensis . Central Nepal; Stainton, Sykes & Williams 726. Silba has cited two specimens at the Arnold Larjung, South of Tukucha, Kali Gandaki, Arboretum from Guizhou, China as belonging to Central Nepal; J. R. Reid s.n. Nainital (India: Cupressus tonkinensis , viz. Y. Tsiang 8004 and Uttaranchal); F. M. Bailey s.n. Chaha, West Steward, Chiao & Cheo 10. Through the good Nepal. offices of the two Curators, I have borrowed This material of Cupressus torulosa differs these and examined them at Edinburgh; they from the Paris specimen of Eberhardt 5073 in both fall within the range of Cupressus funebri s the following characters: and are not close to Cupressus tonkinensis. The cones (when present) have 10, Cupressus tonkinensis is, on our current occasionally 12 scales (i.e. 5, occasionally 6, knowledge, a Vietnamese endemic. pairs of scales); the scales in the one year cones At Huulung in Langson province (when present) have an umbo which is a [21°40'42"N, 106°22'42"E] at 220 m there is a prominent prickle making these cones spiky, not grove of circa twenty trees. These were planted rounded; however in mature (two year old) and in the late 1980's; the seed is reported to have older cones the umbo becomes eroded, making been collected from a tree or trees growing on 33 the nearby karst limestone peaks; other trees are limestone ridges just to the east of Quanba in also cultivated in gardens in the vicinity. These Hagiang province in 1999. This tree shows trees are not fully mature but the adult foliage considerable similarities to Nootka cypress has the flattened sparse sprays of Cupressus which is found in western North America from tonkinensis . However, the tips of most of the northern California to southern Alaska and lateral leaves are acute with a short incurved clearly the two species belong to the same mucro; some leaves, however, have the blunt genus. Historically Nootka cypress has been incurved tips characteristic of Cupressus variously treated as Cupressus nootkatensis D. tonkinensis . Don or Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D. Don) My opinion is that the foliage of these trees, Spach, but recently the consensus had been which are only about 15 years old, is in an moving in favour of Cupressus both on intermediate stage between fully juvenile appraisals based on morphological characters foliage (where the leaves are in whorls of four [6] and on molecular data [7]. with the two decussate pairs superimposed) and The genus Xanthocyparis Farjon & Hiep has fully adult. I consider (on the currently available been proposed for both Nootka cypress and the information) that the Huulung trees are Quanba species (as Xanthocyparis vietnamensis Cupressus tonkinensis . Farjon & Hiep). Recent molecular work Interestingly the Huulung trees have both (Adams, pers. comm., Wang et al. [2003]) have adult (semi-adult?) and juvenile foliage on the shown Nootka cypress and the Quanba cypress same branches. Retained juvenile foliage seems nested within Cupressus , thus confirming the to be a feature of Eastern Asian Cupressaceae. It view expressed by Gadek et al. (2000). Little et is common for a decade or more on plants of al. (2004) have also shown both Nootka and Cupressus funebris and Cupressus chengiana S. Quanba cypresses as nested within a Cupressus Y. Hu and the genus Retinospora Sieb. & Zucc. clade including Juniperus, but have noted that was named for juvenile forms of Japanese the genus Callitropsis Orsted (non Compton) Chamaecyparis . However, this neatly leads into has priority over Xanthocyparis . Molecular work the Quanba cypress. has also shown that Fokienia is nested within Chamaecyparis (Gadek et al., 2000, Little et al. 2. Quanba cypress in Hagiang province 2004, Adams, pers. comm.). It is worth listing the principal characters of these genera to see A cypress was found growing on the karst whether there are one, two, three or four genera.