Cephalotaxus

Molecular studies place Cephalotaxus as the most basal member of the Taxaceae, having a very ancient divergence from them during the late Triassic.[3]

The leaves are spirally arranged on the shoots, but twisted at the base to lie in two flat ranks (except on erect leading shoots); they are linear, 4–12 centimetres (1+1⁄2–4+3⁄4 in) long and 3–4 millimetres (1⁄8–5⁄32 in) broad, soft in texture, with a blunt tip; this helps distinguish them from the related genus Torreya, which has spine-tipped leaves.[2]

The species can be either monoecious or dioecious; when monoecious, the male and female cones are often on different branches. The male (pollen) cones are 5–8 millimetres (13⁄64–5⁄16 in) long, grouped in lines along the underside of a shoot. The female (seed) cones are single or grouped two to 15 together on short stems; minute at first, they mature in about 18 months to a drupe-like structure with the single large nut-like seed 1.5–4 centimetres (5⁄8–1+5⁄8 in) long surrounded by a fleshy covering, green to purple at full maturity. Natural dispersal is thought to be aided by squirrels which bury the seeds for a winter food source; any seeds left uneaten are then able to germinate.[2]

Cephalotaxus species produce cephalotaxine, an alkaloid. Parry et al 1980 provides evidence that cephalotaxine is a phenylethylisoquinoline. However, they also find this genus to be unable to incorporate cinnamic acid into cephalotaxine, and incorporation of cinnamic acid is usually a step in phenylethylisoquinoline syntheses, throwing the phenylethylisoquinoline theory in to question.[4]

The taxonomy of Cephalotaxus is difficult, because the species have been defined using characteristics that intergrade with each other, such as the length and shape of needles, bark, and stomatal band color. Cephalotaxus species have often been separated geographically rather than morphologically.[5]

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
	Cephalotaxus fortunei	Chinese plum-yew	northern Burma and China
	Cephalotaxus griffithii	Griffith's plum yew	northern India, northern Myanmar and the western Sichuan Province in China.
	Cephalotaxus hainanensis	Hainan plum-yew	Hainan in southern China
	Cephalotaxus harringtonii	Japanese plum-yew, Harrington's cephalotaxus, or cowtail pine	from Kyūshū in the south to Hokkaidō, Japan
	Cephalotaxus koreana	Korean plum yew	Korea, Japan and northeast China
	Cephalotaxus lanceolata	Gongshan plum yew	northern Burma and southern China
	Cephalotaxus latifolia	Broad-leaved plum yew	southern China
	Cephalotaxus mannii	Mann's yew plum	southern China, northeast India, Laos, northern Thailand, northern Myanmar and northern Vietnam.
	Cephalotaxus oliveri	Oliver's plum yew	China and possibly to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and eastern India.
	Cephalotaxus sinensis	Chinese plum yew	central and southern China.
	Cephalotaxus wilsoniana	Taiwan plum yew, Taiwan cow's-tail pine, and Wilson plum yew	Taiwan

• Gymnosperm Database
• Photos: Cephalotaxus fortunei, Cephalotaxus koreana