Home › Volumes › Trees › How to Know the Trees

Key to Species — Part 13

A. Leaves linear; branches spreading, pendulous.

B. Length of leaves 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches, bark brown, tinged with orange; fruit dark purple, obovate, 1 to 1 1/4 inches long. (T. taxifolium) FLORIDA TORREYA

BB. Length of leaves 1/3 to 1/2 inch, bark brownish grey; fruit pale green, streaked with purple, oval, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. (T. Californica) CALIFORNIA TORREYA

AA. Leaves lanceolate, spiny pointed; branches spreading, compact; bark bright red; fruit ovoid, less than 1 inch long. (Exotic.) (T. nucifera) JAPANESE TORREYA

The Torreyas, close relatives of the yews, are yet little known outside their native ranges, though they are coming into cultivation in the warmer parts of the country. They are objectionable only on account of the bad odour of their leaves when bruised. The tree habit is symmetrically pyramidal, the whorled limbs pendulous, and the foliage handsome. The trees furnish some fence posts. The wood is very durable in wet soil, which is their chosen habitat.

Torreyas are propagated from seeds and by cuttings. The latter grow slowly, producing plants that remain low and bushy for years. The Florida species has proved hardy in sheltered situations as far north as Boston, but the Californian cannot survive the cold of this high latitude.

The Japanese Torreya promises more hardiness than our native species, and more beauty in cultivation. In habit it is compact with erect limbs, quite different from the pendulous-limbed natives. The bright red bark adds to its beauty, as also does the breadth and fine shape of the lanceolate leaves. In Japan this tree is highly prized for its wood, which is used in cabinet work and building. A Chinese species, T. grandis, resembling the Japanese, is said to lack the disagreeable odour of the other species.

The Florida Torreya (T. taxifolium, Greene) is very local in the northwestern part of that state, growing on bluffs along the Appalachicola River. It is rarely 40 feet high, and is called the "stinking cedar."

The California Nutmeg (T. Californicum, Greene) is a larger tree, handsome in its youthful vigour, in age losing its pyramidal form and becoming round-topped. It is a striking evergreen at any age, with its pale grey bark and its fruits hanging like half-ripe plums among the sprays of prickly, sickle-shaped, linear leaves. The pit of the fruit resembles a nutmeg. A fine grove of these trees is within the borders of the Yosemite Park. Nowhere common, they occur on slopes of the Sierras and Santa Cruz Mountains between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level.