Davidia involucrata | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Cornales |
Family: | Nyssaceae |
Genus: | Davidia Baill. |
Species: | D. involucrata |
Binomial name | |
Davidia involucrata | |
Synonyms | |
Davidia laeta |
Davidia involucrata, the dove-tree, [1] handkerchief tree, pocket handkerchief tree, or ghost tree, is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Nyssaceae. [2] It is the only living species in the genus Davidia. It was previously included with tupelos in the dogwood family, Cornaceae. [3] Fossil species are known extending into the Upper Cretaceous.
Davidia involucrata is the only member of its genus, but there are two varieties differing slightly in their leaves, D. involucrata var. involucrata, which has the leaves thinly pubescent (short-haired) on the underside, and D. involucrata var. vilmoriniana, with glabrous (hairless) leaves. [4] Some botanists treat them as distinct species, with good reason, as the two taxa have differing chromosome numbers so are unable to produce fertile hybrid offspring.[ citation needed ]
It is a moderately fast-growing tree, growing to 20–25 m (66–82 ft) in height, with toothed, alternate, ovate-cordate leaves resembling those of a linden, except that they are symmetrical, and lack the lop-sided base typical of linden leaves; the leaves are mostly 10–20 cm long and 7–15 cm wide.
Davidia involucrata is best known for its inflorescence that features two large, white bracts, the lower almost twice the size of the upper, [5] surrounding a purplish-red flower head. The Latin specific epithet involucrata means "with a ring of bracts surrounding several flowers". [6] The true flowers form a tight head about 1–2 cm across, each flower head with a pair of large (12–25 cm), pure white bracts at the base, performing the function of petals in attracting pollinators. The inflorescences hang in long rows beneath the horizontal branches, and appear prolifically in late spring. On a breezy day, the bracts flutter in the wind like white doves or pinched handkerchiefs; hence the English names for this tree.
The fruit is a very hard nut about 3 cm long surrounded by a green husk about 4 cm long by 3 cm wide, hanging on a 10 cm stalk. The nut contains 3–6 seeds.
Davidiainvolucrata is native to South Central and Southeast China. It grows in montane mixed forests. [7]
The genus Davidia is named for Father Armand David (1826–1900; "Père David"), a French Vincentian missionary and keen naturalist who lived in China. David first described the tree in 1869 as a single tree found at over 2,000 m (6,562 ft) altitude, and sent dried specimens to Paris; in 1871, Henri Baillon described it as a new genus and species. [8] [9]
British plant hunter Augustine Henry again found a single tree, this time in the Yangtse Ichang gorges and sent the first specimen to Kew Gardens. Plant collector Ernest Henry Wilson was employed by Sir Harry Veitch to find Henry's tree but arrived to find that it had been felled for building purposes; however, he later found a grove of the trees overhanging a sheer drop. [10] Returning to Britain, Wilson’s boat was wrecked, but he managed to save his Davidia specimens, [11] one of which survives today in the Arnold Arboretum. [12]
The oldest probable fossils of Davidia are permineralized fruits from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Dinosaur Provincial Park near Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Those fruits are smaller than those of D. involucrata and have fewer locules, but are otherwise similar in morphology to the extant genus. [13]
In 2009, B. I. Pavlyutkin described Miocene fossils in Primorsky Krai and assigned them to a new species in the genus Davidia. [14]
The species was introduced from China to Europe and North America in 1904, and is a popular ornamental tree in parks and larger gardens. Most trees in cultivation are var. vilmoriniana, which has proved much better able to adapt to the climatic conditions in the west.
This tree [15] and the cultivated variety D. involucrata var. vilmoriniana [16] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [17]
Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus Metasequoia, one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now survives in the wild only in wet lower slopes and montane river and stream valleys in the border region of Hubei and Hunan provinces and Chongqing municipality in south-central China, notably in Lichuan county in Hubei. Although the shortest of the redwoods, it can grow to 167 ft (51 m) in height.
Cryptomeria is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae. It includes only one species, Cryptomeria japonica. It used to be considered by some to be endemic to Japan, where it is known as Sugi. The tree is called Japanese cedar or Japanese redwood in English. It has been extensively introduced and cultivated for wood production on the Azores.
Koelreuteria paniculata is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to China. Naturalized in Korea and Japan since at least the 1200s, it was introduced in Europe in 1747, and to America in 1763, and has become a popular landscape tree worldwide. Common names include goldenrain tree, pride of India, China tree, and the varnish tree.
Magnolia denudata, the lilytree or Yulan magnolia, is native to central and eastern China. It has been cultivated in Chinese Buddhist temple gardens since 600 AD. Its flowers were regarded as a symbol of purity in the Tang dynasty and it was planted in the grounds of the emperor's palace. It is the official city flower of Shanghai.
The Arnold Arboretum is a botanical research institution and free public park affiliated with Harvard University and located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston.
Parrotia persica, the Persian ironwood, is a deciduous tree in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to Iran's Caspian region and Azerbaijan. It is endemic in the Alborz mountains, where it is found mainly in Golestan National Park.
Ulmus davidiana var. japonica, the Japanese elm, is one of the larger and more graceful Asiatic elms, endemic to much of continental northeast Asia and Japan, where it grows in swamp forest on young alluvial soils, although much of this habitat has now been lost to intensive rice cultivation.
Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson, better known as E. H. Wilson, was a British plant collector and explorer who introduced a large range of about 2,000 Asian plant species to the West; some sixty bear his name.
Magnolia sprengeri, or Sprenger's magnolia, is a species of Magnolia native to China, occurring in Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan in forests or thickets at 1300–2400 m altitude. Named for Carl Ludwig Sprenger, a botanist of note.
Ulmus davidiana, also known as the David elm, or Father David elm, is a small deciduous tree widely distributed across China, Mongolia, Korea, Siberia, and Japan, where it is found in wetlands along streams at elevations of 2000–2300 m (6,500–7,500 ft). The tree was first described in 1873 from the hills north of Beijing, China.
Alangium is a small genus of flowering plants. The genus is included either in a broad view of the dogwood family Cornaceae, or as the sole member of its own family Alangiaceae. Alangium has about 40 species, but some of the species boundaries are not entirely clear. The type species for Alangium is Alangium decapetalum, which is now treated as a subspecies of Alangium salviifolium. All of the species are shrubs or small trees, except the liana Alangium kwangsiense. A. chinense, A. platanifolium, and A. salviifolium are known in cultivation.
The hybrid elm cultivar Ulmus × hollandica 'Wredei', also known as Ulmus × hollandica 'Dampieri Aurea' and sometimes marketed as Golden Elm, originated as a sport of the cultivar 'Dampieri' at the Alt-Geltow Arboretum, near Potsdam, Germany, in 1875.
The Field Elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Webbiana', or Webb's curly-leaf elm, distinguished by its unusual leaves that fold upwards longitudinally, was said to have been raised at Lee's Nursery, Hammersmith, London, circa 1868, and was first described in that year in The Gardener's Chronicle and The Florist and Pomologist. It was marketed by the Späth nursery of Berlin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as U. campestris WebbianaHort., and by Louis van Houtte of Ghent as U. campestris crispa (Webbiana). Henry thought 'Webbiana' a form of Cornish Elm, adding that it "seems to be identical with the insufficiently described U. campestris var. concavaefoliaLoudon" – a view repeated by Krüssmann.
The Siberian Elm cultivar Ulmus pumila 'Pendula' is from northern China, where it is known as Lung chao yü shu. It was classified by Frank Meyer in Fengtai in 1908, and introduced to the United States by him from the Peking Botanical Garden as Weeping Chinese Elm. The USDA plant inventory record (1916) noted that it was a "rare variety even in China". It was confirmed as an U. pumila cultivar by Krüssmann (1962).
Heptacodium miconioides, the seven-son flower, is a species of flowering plant. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus Heptacodium, of the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. The common name "seven-son flower" is a direct translation of the Standard Chinese name 七子花 qī zi huā.
Cercidiphyllum japonicum, known as the Katsura, is a species of flowering tree in the family Cercidiphyllaceae native to China and Japan. It is sometimes called caramel tree for the light caramel smell it emits during leaf fall. It is also sometimes called candyfloss tree because of the scent.
The Ulmus pumila cultivar 'Aurescens' was introduced by Georg Dieck at the National Arboretum, Zöschen, Germany, circa 1885. Dieck grew the tree from seed collected in the Ili valley, Turkestan by the lawyer and amateur naturalist Vladislav E. Niedzwiecki while in exile there. Dieck originally named the tree U. pinnato-ramosaf.aurescens.
Tsukada is an extinct genus of flowering plant in the family Nyssaceae related to the modern "dove-tree", Davidia involucrata, containing the single species Tsukada davidiifolia. The genus is known from fossil leaves found in the early Eocene deposits of northern Washington state, United States and a similar aged formation in British Columbia, Canada.
Prunus cyclamina, called the cyclamin cherry, the Chinese flowering cherry, and in Chinese: 襄阳山樱桃, the Xiangyang mountain cherry, is a species of flowering cherry native to China, preferring to grow at 1000–1300 m above sea level. It has prolific, attractive pale pink flowers that bloom early and outlast many later-blooming cherries and, accordingly, excellent potential as an ornamental. In the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts two individuals have prospered for decades, never showing any signs of the typical diseases—including the nematodes, viruses and black knot—that afflict their Prunus neighbors.
Forsythia europaea, commonly known as Albanian forsythia or European forsythia, is a species of flowering plant in the olive family, with a native range from Montenegro to northern Albania. It is the only species of Forsythia native to Europe; prior to its discovery in Albania in 1897, it was thought that all Forsythia were native to East Asia.