Formosa Pine

An important timber tree in Taiwan, Pinus taiwanensis is very close to P. luchuensis, from Japan (Ryukyu Islands). Pinus taiwanensis var. damingshanensis, described from C Guangxi (Shanglin: Daming Shan) and also recorded from Guizhou, is here included in synonymy. It has both marginal and median resin canals in the needles, but this character was considered unreliable by D. Z. Li (Edinburgh J. Bot. 54: 343. 1997). R. R. Mill prefers to treat all material from the Chinese mainland as a separate species, P. hwangshanensis, which differs from typical P. taiwanensis (from Taiwan) as follows: needle sheaths 0.5-1 cm (not 1-1.4 cm); middle part of margin with (37-)43-57 teeth per cm (not 26-35(-39)); pollen cones reddish brown (not yellowish brown); umbo of seed scales depressed, with a minute but distinct and persistent, mucronate prickle (not flat, with a tiny, deciduous prickle or unarmed).

Trees to 50 m tall; trunk straight or ± tortuous, to 1 m d.b.h.; bark dark gray or grayish brown; crown broadly ovoid, finally umbrellalike; branches spreading or spreading-ascending; 1st-year branchlets brown to yellowish brown, slender; winter buds pinkish brown or reddish brown, cylindric, ovoid-ellipsoid, or ovoid, 1-1.5 cm × 5-6 mm, ± resinous, scales white or long white fringed at margin. Needles 2 per bundle, not or slightly twisted, 4.5-17 cm × 0.6-1 mm, resin canals 2-7(or 8), median, rarely also marginal, base with sheath 0.5-1.4 cm, margin serrulate, with 26-57 teeth per cm in middle part of needle. Pollen cones reddish brown or yellowish brown, 1-2 cm × 3-4 mm. Seed cones light brown to chocolate brown, lustrous, narrowly ovoid or ovoid conical before opening, 3-6 × (2.5-)3-5 cm (closed), persistent. Seed scales ca. 1.8 × 0.8-1 cm, apophyses at middle of closed cones shield- or lozenge-shaped or pentagonal, with 2 or 3 distinct, ± straight or concave proximal edges and a distal end with either 2 distinct, straight or curved edges or a single, rounded margin; umbos depressed or flat, with a minute but distinct and persistent, mucronate prickle, or with a tiny, deciduous prickle, or unarmed. Seeds ellipsoid or ovoid, compressed, 5-6 × 2.6-3.4 mm (excluding wing); wing 1-1.4 cm × 5-6 mm. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct of 2nd year.

Anhui, Fujian, C Guangxi, Guizhou, S Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, SE Yunnan, Zhejiang

* Mixed warm-temperate and montane forests, open areas and sunny ridges on sandy, acidic mountains, co-dominant with species of Fagaceae; 600-3400 m.

Pinus brevispica Hayata; P. hwangshanensis W. Y. Hsia; P. luchuensis Mayr subsp. hwangshanensis (W. Y. Hsia) D. Z. Li; P. luchuensis var. hwangshanensis (W. Y. Hsia) C. L. Wu; P. luchuensis subsp. taiwanensis (Hayata) D. Z. Li; P. taiwanensis var. damingshanensis W. C. Cheng & L. K. Fu.