Cathaya argyrophylla seed

LATIN NAME: Cathaya argyrophylla

COMMON NAME: Cathaya

The Cathaya is a handsome, upright, tall, evergreen tree of the cool mountain forests, and its fine, linear, flattened, bluish-green leaves with the two fine white bands beneath and its small, inconspicuous, greenish cones of the male and female flowers, followed by the small, ovoid, brown cones of the few winged seeds, have made it a treasured and fine tree of the region. It grows as an upright, tall, evergreen tree, reaching up to twenty metres or more, with the upright, tapering, grey-barked trunk bearing the spirally arranged, linear, flattened, pointed, bluish-green leaves with the two fine white bands beneath and, through the spring, the small, inconspicuous, greenish male and female cones, followed by the small, ovoid, brown cones of the few winged seeds. It is a species of the flowering tree in the pine family, and it is native to the cool mountain forests of the southern China, while it is treasured for its fine, blue-green foliage, and it is known as the Cathaya.

In the pine family it is the rare, blue-green conifer of the southern mountains, a living link to the ancient forests of the region.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Cathaya holds a place of honour in the conifer papers of the world, for it is one of the fine, ancient, rare trees of the region, and its few wild populations have been studied with the greatest care by the botanists and the conservationists. The botanists have mapped its place in the pine family and the mountain forest flora, and the horticulturists have grown the neat, blue-green form for the garden and the arboretum. The native trees are best left to their protected forests, and the growers of the rare conifers keep the cultivated form in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the garden and the arboretum, the Cathaya is the blue-green conifer of the sheltered corner. Its small cones feed the insects, its winged seeds feed the birds and the forest creatures, and the dense, evergreen crown gives the garden a fine, neat presence. It has been treasured for the blue-green, white-banded foliage and the ancient story, and it grows well in the rich, moist, well-drained ground of the cool, sheltered spot. Blue-green, neat and rare.

These seeds are best sown fresh — press the fine, winged seeds at a shallow depth into pots of rich, moist, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a sheltered, half-shaded spot and never let them dry out, and the first shoots will appear before long.

Rare plants