''Abies beshanzuensis'' (Baishanzu fir, Baishan fir) is a species of fir (genus ''Abies'') 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 cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly kn ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Mt. Baishanzu in southern

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

province in eastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, where it grows at altitude and is threatened by collection and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. The site is within the Fengyangshan – Baishanzu National Nature Reserve. ''Abies beshanzuensis'' is classified as critically endangered by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

. It was discovered in 1963 on the summit of Baishanzu Shan (1,857 m), where only seven trees were found. Three of these were dug up and moved to Beijing Botanical Garden, where they died. By 1987, only three trees were left in the wild, making it the rarest conifer in the world. New planting of grafted plants on Baishanzu Shan and other nearby sites has shown some success, but the species remains critically endangered. It is a tree growing to tall, with a broad conic crown and a trunk up to in diameter. The shoots are stout, pale yellow-brown, hairless or slightly hairy. The leaves are linear, long and wide, glossy green above, and with two white

stoma In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bo ...

tal bands below. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are narrow cylindric-conic, bright green when immature, ripening pale yellow-brown, long and wide, with exserted and reflexed bracts. It is closely related to ''

Abies firma ''Abies firma'', the momi fir, is a species of fir native to central and southern Japan, growing at low to moderate altitudes of 50–1600 m. ''Abies firma'' is a medium-sized to large evergreen coniferous tree growing to tall and in trunk di ...

'' from southern

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, placed with it as the only two members of ''Abies'' subsect. ''Firmae''. The species '' Abies ziyuanensis'' is included in ''Abies beshanzuensis'' as a variety by some botanists, though others place this species in a different subsection of the genus, ''Abies'' subsect. ''Holophyllae''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abies beshanzuensis beshanzuensis Endemic flora of China Flora of Zhejiang Trees of China Critically endangered flora of Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Plants described in 1976