''Juglans hopeiensis'' (), also known as Ma walnut, is a species of

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

native to northern

Hebei Province Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

. Some

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

s believe that the species is a

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

Juglans regia ''Juglans regia'', the Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut, or especially in Great Britain, common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himala ...

and

Juglans mandshurica ''Juglans mandshurica'' (), also known as Manchurian walnut, or Tigernut, is a deciduous tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (section ''Cardiocaryon''), native to the Eastern Asiatic Region ( China, Russian Far East, North Korea and South Korea). It ...

. Currently, it is a threatened tree species. Historically, Ma walnut was originally distributed in the Northern

Taihang Mountains The Taihang Mountains () are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over from north to south and has an average elevation of . The principal peak is ...

, so it was called Hebei walnut (河北核桃). This species is mainly distributed in some mountainous areas of

Shanxi Province Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

in China.

Morphological characteristics

Ma walnut, whose scientific name is ''Juglans hopeiensis Hu'', is a plant belonging to the genus Juglans of the family

Juglandaceae The Juglandaceae are a plant family known as the walnut family. They are trees, or sometimes shrubs, in the order Fagales. Members of this family are native to the Americas, Eurasia, and Southeast Asia. The nine or ten genera in the family have ...

. The plant can reach up to 2.5

meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

s high and often grow in high mountains. Its bark is gray-white with longitudinal cracks.

Discovery and Naming

In 1930, Zhou Hanfan (周汉藩) discovered this new species in Banjiegou, Xiakou Village, Changping County, Hebei Province (now part of

). Subsequently, one strain of the species was found in each of Jixian, Mentougou, and Lianhua Mountain. In 1934, the new species was first described by the Chinese botanist

Hu Xiansu Hu Xiansu or Hu Hsien-Hsu (, 24 May 1894 – 16 July 1968), was a Chinese botanist and an influential traditional scholar of his time. He was a founder of plant taxonomy in China and a pioneer of modern botany research in the country. Education a ...

(better known as H. H. Hu) in his paper entitled ''Notulae systematicae ad Florem Sinensium V''. He originally indicated that the species was known locally as "Mahetao" (i.e. Ma walnut) and was once quite commonly cultivated, but it subsequently became less popular. In 1981, several plants of Ma walnut were found again in Bancheng District, Lishui County, Hebei Province. The name of the species was verified by AAS Systematic Botanist on October 15, 1998.

References

External links

Diarylheptanoids from the fresh pericarps of Juglans hopeiensis
'' ScienceDirect'', from ''

Fitoterapia ''Fitoterapia'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering research on the use of medicinal plants and bioactive natural products of plant origin in pharmacotherapy. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', ''Fitoterapia'' has a 2021 imp ...

''. Retrieved December 10, 2020. {{Taxonbar, from=Q11175776 hopeiensis Trees of Asia Flora of China Fruit trees Plants described in 1934