Keteleeria hainanensis Chun et Tsiang is a species in the genus Keteleeria (family Pinaceae).

Distribution and habitat

The tree species is cultivated in BaWang Ling and YingGe Ling in Hainan.

This plant grows in mountainous areas of about 1,000 meters above sea level, together with Dacrydium pierrei Hickel, Parakmeria lotungensis (Chun et C. Tsoong) Law, Alseodaphne hainanensis Merr., and Hainan Pinus massoniana. One of its native places, BaWang Ling, is a tropical monsoon area adjacent to the South China Sea, but it is also in the low land of the leeward in Western Hainan, where the climate is dry and hot, yet only cooler and humid from the halfway up the peak. The annual average temperature there is about 18°C, and the annual amount of precipitation is 1,797 mm. Wet season comes in May and lasts until October, while the dry season is between November and April of the following year. The reserve, however, is located above fog line, with higher humidity and strong wind. The tree normally grows well in deep mountainous yellow soil, covered with a thick layer of dry branches and fallen leaves.

Morphological characteristics

This evergreen tree can grow up to 30 meters tall, with the DBH reaching up to 1-2 meters. The bark is grayish yellow or brown, with rough surface and irregular longitudinal cracks. Its branchlets are glabrous. The winter bud is oval with most scales and persistent sheaths at the base. Its leaves radiate outwards, either lineari-lanceolatus or linear, slightly curved or straight, with a length of 5-8/14 cm and a width of 3-4/9 mm. The apex of a leaf is pointed and obtuse, and the base is wedge-shaped, connected with a short petiole. Veins on both sides of the leaf rise up from the middle. 4-8 stomata lines are arranged on each side of the upper part, while two gray-green stomata belts are observed below. 5-8 male cones are clustered at the top of the branches or in the leaf axil, whereas female cones grow separately at the top of lateral branches. Its globose fruits are erect and cylindrical, about 14-18 cm in length and 7 cm in diameter; the seed scales in the middle are trapeziform or oblique-ovate, about 4 cm long and 2.5-3 cm wide. The visible back part of the scales is glabrous, and the tip is obtuse, dimple and slightly curved backwards; the bract scales are half of the size of the seed scales and become a bit narrower from the central part. The upper part appears approximately circular, with the apex 3-lobed vaguely. The central lobe is in a triangular shape that gradually narrows, which is 2.5 mm long, while the lateral lobes are obtuse. The seeds are nearly triangular-elliptic and 14-16 mm long. Seed wings have thick membranous layer, wider in the middle and lower parts, which are about 13-14 mm broad, about the same length as the seed scales. The apex is obtuse.