Plate 1 figs. a–g · 1 observation
This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.
Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.
Native range 5 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| China North-Central | CHN | ASIA-TEMPERATE |
| China South-Central | CHC | |
| China Southeast | CHS | |
| Taiwan | TAI | |
| Tibet | CHT |
Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.
Where it actually grows measured, from 97 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | -2.9 °C | -0.2 °C | 4.1 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 14.4 °C | 16.6 °C | 23.2 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 2,955 mm | 4,093 mm | 4,876 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 134 mm | 299 mm | 368 mm |
It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 97 research-grade observations of Tsuga chinensis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.
This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.
Also published as 19 synonyms
A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.
- Abies chinensis Franch.
- Abies dumosa var. chinensis (Franch.) Franch.
- Abies theisha David
- Abies thunbergii (Lamb.) Lindl.
- Tsuga brunoniana var. chinensis (Franch.) Mast.
- Tsuga chinensis subsp. formosana (Hayata) Silba
- Tsuga chinensis subsp. oblongisquamata (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) Silba
- Tsuga chinensis subsp. patens (Downie) A.E.Murray
- Tsuga chinensis subsp. robusta (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) Silba
- Tsuga chinensis subsp. tchekiangensis (Flous) Silba
- Tsuga chinensis var. daibuensis S.S.Ying
- Tsuga chinensis var. formosana (Hayata) H.L.Li & H.Keng
- Tsuga chinensis var. patens (Downie) L.K.Fu & Nan Li
- Tsuga chinensis var. tchekiangensis (Flous) W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu
- Tsuga dumosa var. chinensis (Franch.) E.Pritz.
- Tsuga formosana Hayata
- Tsuga oblongisquamata (W.C.Cheng & L.K.Fu) L.K.Fu & Nan Li
- Tsuga patens Downie
- Tsuga tchekiangensis Flous
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.
We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.