Florida Torreya is a rare conifer native to a very small area along the Apalachicola River in the Florida panhandle and adjacent southwestern Georgia, one of the most restricted natural ranges of any North American tree species. It is a small to medium sized evergreen with stiff, sharply pointed, yew like needles that have a pungent odor when crushed, and it produces a fleshy, plum like seed structure rather than a true cone. The species suffered a catastrophic population collapse in the mid twentieth century due to a still not fully understood fungal disease, and surviving wild individuals are now almost entirely small resprouting stems that rarely reach reproductive maturity. Florida Torreya is listed as critically endangered, and conservationists have debated proposals to assist its migration northward to escape disease and a warming climate in its native range.
Facts
Classification
DietPhotosynthetic Autotroph 1 System (Realm) Relationship to PeopleSource of Timber or Wood 3 Living or Extinct Comparison
NatureServe RankG1 Critically Imperiled 5 CITES Appendix Scientific Name Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Plantae, Taxa Source Torreya taxifolia (Wikidata)
In Biome
River, Biomes Source NatureServe Explorer: Torreya taxifolia
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Torreya taxifolia (Wikipedia)
Lead, sentence naming the group it belongs toQuote, Lead, sentence naming the group it belongs to
Torreya taxifolia, commonly known as Florida torreya or stinking-cedar, but also sometimes as Florida nutmeg or gopher wood, is an endangered coniferous subcanopy tree of the yew family, Taxaceae.
2. GBIF Species API
3. The Gymnosperm Database: Torreya taxifolia
The Gymnosperm DatabaseEthnobotany: fuel and building usesQuote, Ethnobotany: fuel and building uses
The species was formerly used for fuel, fence posts, and shingles (American Forests 1996), but now is limited to ornamental uses.
4. Torreya taxifolia (Wikidata)
Wikidata- Wikidata Q595832 (P225 taxon name)
Statements section, conservation status (P141)
IUCN Red List conservation status (Wikidata property P141): critically endangered.
- Child Taxon Of: Plantae, Wikidata parent-taxon (P171) chain
View the Source 5. NatureServe Explorer: Torreya taxifolia
NatureServe ExplorerGlobal rank (roundedGRank)
"roundedGRank": "G1"
In Biome: River, Species characteristics: SPRING/SPRING BROOK
"riverineHabitatDescEn": "SPRING/SPRING BROOK"
View the Source 6. UNEP-WCMC Species+ database (CITES Secretariat): Species+: Pinales
UNEP-WCMC Species+ database (CITES Secretariat)Species+ taxon_concepts, id 12387Quote, Species+ taxon_concepts, id 12387
"cites_listing":"I/II/III/NC","eu_listing":"A/B/C/NC","higher_taxa":{"kingdom":"Plantae","phylum":null,"class":null,"order":"Pinales","family":null},"synonyms":[],"common_names":[],"cites_listings":[]
7. Florida Torreya (Wikipedia)
UNEP-WCMC Species+ database (CITES Secretariat): Species+: Taxaceae
UNEP-WCMC Species+ database (CITES Secretariat)Species+ taxon_concepts, id 12484Quote, Species+ taxon_concepts, id 12484
"cites_listing":"II/NC","eu_listing":"B/NC","higher_taxa":{"kingdom":"Plantae","phylum":null,"class":null,"order":"Pinales","family":"Taxaceae"},"synonyms":[],"common_names":[{"name":"If commun de l'Himalaya","language":"FR"},{"name":"Himalayan yew","language":"EN"},{"name":"Tejo del Himalaya","language":"ES"},{"name":"紫杉科","language":"ZH"}],"cites_listings":[]
Plant (Wikipedia)
Lead, whole group is photosyntheticQuote, Lead, whole group is photosynthetic
They are predominantly photosynthetic or came from photosynthetic ancestors, meaning that they obtain their energy from sunlight by using the green pigment chlorophyll in their chloroplasts to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water.
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