Abies pseudochensiensis — A new fir described from cultivation from European living collections

Debreczy, Zs. and Rácz, I. (2010) Abies pseudochensiensis — A new fir described from cultivation from European living collections. Acta Botanica Hungarica, 52 (3-4). pp. 305-313. ISSN 0236-6495

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Abstract

A very distinct Abies , long cultivated in European gardens, typically without a name or with an incorrect name, and always without an exact source of origin, has been studied by present authors in several European living collections and herbaria. The tree, with needles pale green abaxially and conspicuously large blue-gray to purplish cones, appears identical with the taxon described and well illustrated in Franco (1950) as A. × vasconcellosiana ( A. pindrow × A. pinsapo ) and described as an accidental natural hybrid of two distantly related species, both of which have been cultivated in Peña Park, Sintra, Portugal. Unfortunately no living tree survived at the type locality and only sterile branchlets or cones in carpological collections have been found in herbaria. Plants in living collections that are evidently the same taxon as this one are variously named as A. chensiensis, A. ernestii, A. gamblei , or A. × vasconcellosiana but indeed represent a very distinct species that must be a late 19th century introduction to Europe (probably first to Hesse, Germany) whose data, however, was lost. Authors briefly describe the taxon, its morphology in comparision with the few taxa it was confused with in living collections, and speculate on its native habitat in the western Himalayas and/or adjacent ranges. This taxon, which has been observed for decades, is hereby named, formally described, and types are designated. With two figures.

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