''Pinus leptokrempfii'' was a species of large-sized

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

in the family

Pinaceae The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as Cedrus, cedars, firs, Tsuga, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, ...

. It was an early relative of ''

Pinus krempfii ''Pinus krempfii'', or Krempf's pine, is a rare species of pine, endemic to the central highlands of Vietnam in the Da Lat–Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of ...

'', being alive in the Oligocene Period. The

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species had shorter, narrower needles than ''Pinus krempfii'', which is where the name "leptokrempfii" derived for "lepto" means "short and narrow". The first specimens were described in the

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, where

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s revealed the noticeable trait of flat needles, like ''Pinus krempfii''. ''Pinus krempfii'' evolved to survive in warmer climates, such as northern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, where it broke off of ''Pinus leptokrempfii'' after the Oligocene Period. The fossils of the species were discovered by Jian-Wei Zhang ( Chinese botanist) in 2021, and was eventually placed in the Pinus subect. Krempfianae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107311837 leptokrempfii