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Torreya californica
Also called California Torreya, Stinking Cedar, Californian Nutmeg, California Nutmeg Tree
Torreya californica is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen conifer native to California's Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills, grown mainly as a specimen or shade-tolerant understory tree. The key to growing it is giving it deep shade or partial shade and well-drained soil, since it is a subcanopy tree that tolerates shade well.
Torreya californica is a species of conifer endemic to California, occurring in the Pacific Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is commonly known as California torreya or California nutmeg tree (although not closely related to true nutmeg). It is one of only two species of genus Torreya that are native to North America. A slow-growing (but long-lived) subcanopy tree, it is listed as "vulnerable" in the IUCN Red List.
The altitudinal range of T. californica is from near sea level (but usually above 200 m) in the Coast Ranges to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in the Sierra Nevada. This shade-adapted, subcanopy tree is native to mountainous habitats in either the California Coast Ranges or the west slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges in California, which are distant from the coast. In the Coast Ranges, it is distributed from southwest Trinity County south to Monterey County. In the interior mountain ranges, it is distributed from Shasta County south to Tulare County.
Commercial harvesting of California nutmeg is almost nonexistent due to scant availability. It was logged on a limited basis in the past, especially where growing in association with coast redwood, but was never an important timber species.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Torreya californica 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.
