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NSF PR 02-51 - June 4, 2002
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090118010352im_/http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/images/green_titles/green_pixel.gif)
Botanists Discover New Conifer Species in Vietnam
An unusual conifer found in a remote area of northern
Vietnam has been identified as a genus and species
previously unknown to science. The limestone ridges
where the tree grows are among the most botanically
rich areas in Vietnam, said Daniel Harder, currently
director of the University of California at Santa
Cruz (UCSC) Arboretum and a co-discoverer of the new
species. The discovery is published in the current
issue of the journal Novon.
"Biologists don't need to contemplate finding life
on another planet to imagine making extraordinary
discoveries; the fact is, most of the species living
on our own planet are still unknown," says Norman
Platnick, program director in the National Science
Foundation's (NSF) division of environmental biology,
which funded the research. "That kind of basic, new
knowledge about life, its interrelationships, and
how it is distributed across the globe, often has
enormous practical implications, guiding the search
for new medicines, new pesticides, and even new ways
to control alien, invasive species."
Harder spent several years in Vietnam, working to establish
an on-going survey of Vietnamese plants organized
by the Missouri Botanical Garden, which received the
NSF funding that helped enable this research. During
that time, he and his collaborators discovered more
than 100 new species of plants. But the conifer now
known as the golden Vietnamese cypress is by far the
most remarkable of those discoveries, he said.
"For us to find a previously undescribed large tree
like this indicates that there is probably a lot more
to be discovered there," Harder said. "It's comparable
to the recent discoveries of previously unknown large
mammals in Southeast Asia, like the giant muntjac
and the saola, a type of ox."
Other scientists involved in the conifer discovery
included Vietnamese botanists Nguyen Tien Hiep and
Phan Ke Loc, Russian botanist Leonid Averyanov, and
United Kingdom botanist Philip Cribb from the Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew. They found the trees clinging
to steep limestone ridges in a mountainous area known
as Bat Dai Son near the Chinese border.
The recently discovered tree is a new genus within
the cypress family (Cupressaceae); botanists have
named it Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, the golden
Vietnamese cypress. Its closest relative is the yellow
spruce of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, also known as
the Nootka cypress. Previously classified as Chamaecyparis
nootkatensis, the yellow spruce is now classified
as the second species in the new genus Xanthocyparis.
The new species is distinctive in that it bears two
different types of foliage (needles and scale leaves)
on mature trees. It produces fine, yellowish-brown,
hard, fragrant timber that is highly prized by local
citizens. Logging has reduced the number of larger
trees, but some very large and stately specimens still
grow on the steep, rocky slopes of isolated mountain
peaks, Harder said. The mountaintop ridges in Bat
Dai Son hold remnants of a forest that was once much
more widespread, he added.
"This tree was already rare and endangered when it
was discovered, which lends urgency to putting in
place some protections," Harder said. "These limestone
mountains might actually harbor other valuable species."
In addition to the cypress, the collaborative team
of botanists exploring the area has found about two
dozen new orchid species, a variety of interesting
new shrubs, and numerous herbs and bulbs, including
a half-dozen new species in the Jack-in-the-pulpit
family (Araceae).
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