Callitropsis vietnamensis

Callitropsis vietnamensis, commonly known as the Vietnamese Golden Cypress, is a coniferous tree in the cypress family.

Distribution

Callitropsis vietnamensis is endemic to Vietnam, being native only to the karst limestone mountains of the Ha Giang Province in northern Vietnam.^[1]

Taxonomy

It was first discovered by western scientists only in October 1999 and was shortly thereafter described as a new genus and species, namely Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, closely related to Nootka Cypress (Callitropsis nootkatensis), which was also transferred to this new genus (Farjon et al. 2002). Subsequently, Little et al. (2004) pointed out that an earlier genus name Callitropsis had been given to Nootka Cypress, so they transferred the Vietnamese Golden Cypress to this genus.

Conservation

Callitropsis vietnamensis is designated as a Critically endangered species, as only 560 individuals are known to exist, on only 10 km² of habitat.^[1]

References

• Farjon et al. (2004). Xanthocyparis vietnamensis. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
• Farjon, A., Hiep, N. T., Harder, D. K., Loc, P. K., & Averyanov, L. 2002. A new genus and species in the Cupressaceae (Coniferales) from northern Vietnam, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis. Novon 12: 179–189.
• Little, D. P., Schwarzbach, A. E., Adams, R. P. & Hsieh, Chang-Fu. 2004. The circumscription and phylogenetic relationships of Callitropsis and the newly described genus Xanthocyparis (Cupressaceae). American Journal of Botany 91 (11): 1872–1881. Abstract