Cathaya
Cathaya is a genus in the pine family, Pinaceae, with one known living species, Cathaya argyrophylla. In foliage and cone morphology, Cathaya has been considered a member of the subfamily Laricoideae, closely related to Pseudotsuga and Larix, but more recent genetic studies have suggested a closer relationship to Pinus and Picea in the subfamily Pinoideae. A second species, C. nanchuanensis, is now treated as a synonym, as it does not differ from C. argyrophylla in any characters.
Description
Cathaya is confined to a limited area in southern China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and southeast Sichuan. It is an evergreen tree growing to tall and a trunk up to diameter, found on steep, narrow mountain slopes at altitude on limestone soils. A larger population has been reduced by over-cutting before its scientific discovery and protection in 1950.The leaves are needle-like, long, have ciliate margins when young, and grow around the stems in a spiral pattern. The cones are long, with about 15–20 scales, each scale bearing two winged seeds.
One or two botanists, unhappy with the idea of a new genus in such a familiar family, tried to shoehorn it into other existing genera, as Pseudotsuga argyrophylla and Tsuga argyrophylla. It is however very distinct from both of these genera, and these combinations are not now used.
The species was introduced into Europe and North America in the 1990s.