Torreya and Cephalotaxus trees

[castanea]

I recently bought some nuts, about the same size as almonds, in a Chinese grocery in Chinatown in San Francisco. I bought them because I did not recognize them. Turns out they are nuts from Torreya grandis, a Chinese tree that could be successfully grown in many parts of the US. In fact we already have Torreya californica on the west coast and Torreya taxifolia in Florida. Torreyas are slow growing trees and generally not hardy to areas colder than zone 6, but they can fill a neglected niche in many places because they do well as understory trees or in light shade.

While looking into Torreya I kept running into references to its relatives the Cephalotaxus, commonly referred to as Plum yews. The fruit and nuts of some of these are edible, the Japanese C. harringtonia apparently more so than the Chinese C. fortunei. These are usually grown as ornamental shrubs in north America although given enough time they turn into small trees.

[atash]

If I can find it, maybe I could post my picture of Torreya taxifolia, one rare tree. It grows along the Apalachicola river in Florida, where it is nearly extinct. Unfortunately, the local arboretum only has a single specimen, and you need at least a boy and a girl to get fruit.

Castanea, have you ever been to the local arboretum? It has rather a lot of exotic conifers.

Unfortunately, one of them, an exceedingly rare Keteleeria, was made into an ad-hoc Christmas-tree some years ago. I dunno if it were ever replaced. I've got some seeds down in my basement; we'll see if they germinate.

A number of exotic conifers make edible arils (including Yews, which are still common, but don't eat the seeds!). And many make tasty "nuts".

[atash]

I have Podocarpus salignus in my backyard. Had two but one died. Hard to replace them nowadays. I should look for some fresh seed.

Beautiful funky tree though. Some of the south African podocarpus are hardyish here, and even rarer. They're almost extinct in habitat too (I mean like the Keteleerias and Torryas, not the P. salignus which is fairly common in habitat), due to both long-term climate change, and human help.

[templeton]

Are you familiar with Bunya Pine Auracaria bidwillii? Not exactly a backyard tree, tho.
Lots were planted in the old public gardens around Melbourne, are now 'heritage listed' and present a considerable headache for local councils - the falling cones are potential killers.
Wikipedia has a nice short summary of the culinary uses.

There are a number of subalpine podocarps in aust too, Mountain Plum Pine springs to mind - bears berries, but I've never tried them.
T

[atash]

I'm familiar with it. It's in cultivation in the Bay Area. I suspect it's been tried here but is not quite cold-hardy enough to make it through the colder of our winters.

We have another one here, Araucaria araucara, the "Monkey Puzzle Tree", from Chile. Very common here. Has the same problem of dangerously large and heavy cones, but the nuts are quite palatable, like gigantic pignolas. Yum yum!

[castanea]

The grounds at the California state Capitol have both Torreya californica and Auracaria bidwillii. I have never noticed the Torreya but the Auracarias are huge.

[atash]

The hardiest, and I suspect most common, of its kind, though there are plenty of Araucarias in New Caledonia. That's snow dusting its branches; it's a tree in my neighborhood I shot this afternoon going out for a walk and running some errands.

New Caledonia oddly enough boasts the world's highest concentration of genera of conifer. Several of them are "monotypic" which helps boost the totals.

I wonder if conifers arose during an Ice Age preceding the more recent one. Such a huge fraction of them are obviously built for snow. But not all of them; some are tropical. Podocarpus don't shed snow very well, and most of them live where snow is rare or non-existent, though there are dwarf Podocarpus in the mountains of New Zealand, and they occur in Chile in snowy climates.

Speaking of snowy climates, relict conifers in tropical or subtropical climates often, but not always, tolerate more cold than their environments suggest. There are several reasons for this, including oily sap that does not expand in cold like water does, and vestigial hardiness from when their native lands were colder than they are now. So, for example, the "Wollemi Pine"--Wollemi nobilis--is hardy to around -15C/4F thereabouts--exactly as I predicted, contrary to being told off by a University of Washington conifer specialist back when it was discovered. It is a relict of a much cooler and damper climate that Australia had when it was further south and oriented differently than it is now. Vestigial hardiness often lasts for seemingly many millions of years after it is superfluous. But, if it didn't have it, it wouldn't be able to grow in as many places as it does now, after being rescued.