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Keteleeria davidiana
David's Keteleeria is a large conifer in the pine family, growing to 40 to 50 m in its native hills and valleys of China, Taiwan and northern Vietnam. It is a forest tree rather than a garden or houseplant, and it needs space and a climate with real winters.
Keteleeria davidiana (zh: 铁坚油杉) is a coniferous tree in the pine family, Pinaceae, native to Taiwan and southeast China, in the provinces of Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan. It also occurs in the very northern part of Vietnam. The tree is restricted to hills, mountains, and valleys at elevations of 200–1500 m. Generally, it grows in regions with a more continental climate than the other two Keteleeria species.
The tree reaches 40–50 m in height, developing an irregular oblate crown with large branches. The branchlets have a dense covering of stiff hairs. The bark is dull brown to dark gray-black, and is scaly or flaky. The leaves are needle-like, 2-6.4 cm long by 3.6-4.2 mm broad. They are flat, stiff, and dark shiny green. The cones are light brown, cylindrical, and stand erect on the branches.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Keteleeria davidiana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
