Oliver's Plum Yew

A vulnerable species, endemic to China; records from Vietnam are referable to Cephalotaxus mannii.

Shrubs or small trees to 4 m tall; bark yellow to grayish brown, scaly. Leafy branchlets oblong-elliptic in outline, plane, 7-9 × 3.5-5 cm. Leaves borne at 55-70° to branchlet axis; petiole ca. 0.5 mm; blade dull matt green adaxially, linear-lanceolate, ± straight or very slightly falcate, strongly convex, (1.5-) 1.6-2.5(-3.2) cm × 2.3-3.2 mm, hard and leathery, midvein ca. 0.8-1 mm wide, stomatal bands on abaxial surface 0.8-1 mm wide abaxially, of 13-17 rows of stomata, as wide as (rarely wider than) midvein and marginal bands, marginal bands ca. 0.8 mm wide, base shallowly cordate or cordate-truncate, margin flat, apex obtuse, shortly cuspidate, cusp often breaking off. Pollen-cone capitula axillary, borne on lower side and toward distal end of terminal branchlets; buds developing before the subtending leaves expand; microsporophylls 6-10, each with 3 or 4 pollen sacs. Seeds cones solitary; peduncle ca. 6 mm. Seed obovoid, ovoid, or almost globose, 2.2-2.7 × 1.4-1.8 cm, apex with small mucro. Pollination Mar-Apr, seed maturity Aug-Oct. 2n = 24*.

N Guangdong, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, E Jiangxi, S and W Sichuan (especially Emei Shan), E Yunnan

* Coniferous and broad-leaved forests; 300-1800 m.