''Pinus fenzeliana'' commonly known as the Hainan white pine or Fenzel's pine, is a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated Plant stem, stem, or trunk (botany), trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondar ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the island of

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly ...

off southern China. This

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

reaches heights of 20 m with a trunk 1 m in diameter.

Description

The

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

are needle-like, in fascicles of five, and 5–13 cm long. The

seed cone A conifer cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants. It is usually woody, ovoid to globular, including scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, especially in conifers an ...

s are 6–11 cm long, with thick, woody scales; the seeds are large, about 8–15 mm long, with a vestigial 3 mm wing, similar to the related Chinese white pine (''Pinus armandii''). Hainan white pine differs from that species in the shorter needles, smaller cones, and in being adapted to a

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, ...

habitat. A pine from the

Dabie Mountains The Dabie Mountains () are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the main watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province and its neighb ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

, eastern China, first described as a species '' Pinus dabeshanensis'', is occasionally treated as a variety of this species, but more commonly as a variety of ''P. armandii'', which it more closely resembles. Reports of ''Pinus fenzeliana'' from

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

have not been verified; trees in this area have proved to be either Vietnamese white pine (''Pinus dalatensis'') or Guangdong white pine (''Pinus wangii''), which both differ markedly in cone and seed size and shape, though similar in foliage.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3239675 fenzeliana Endemic flora of China Flora of Hainan Trees of China Near threatened flora of Asia

Description

References

Further reading

External links