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| Botanical Name | Cunninghamia lanceolata |
| Common Name(s) | China fir |
| Light and Soil Requirement | Full sun or partial shade; clay; sand; loam; acidic; well-drained soil |
| Zones of Hardiness | 6 to 9 |
| Height & Width | 50 to 75 feet tall, 15 to 30 feet wide |
| Leaf Arrangement | 1.5 to 2.5 inch pointed needles, coarse texture |
| Form / Shape | Pyramidal |
| Leaf Color | Bright green |
| Special Attributes | Needles, |
| Common to your area? | No |
| Is this plant native to the US? | No |
| Management | China fir is extremely drought tolerant and grows well in poor, compacted clay soil. It is very adapted to urban soils except those poorly drained. It is not recommended for areas prone to wildfires as the dead needles accumulate and are very flammable. |
| Pests and potential problems | None |
| Have you used this plant? | No |
| Why would you use/not use this plant? | Unique shape and appearance |
| Where can you find this plant? Wholesale/Retail | China fir is available at wholesale and retail prices at some local, regional and national garden centers and online vendors. |
| How do you personally identify this plant? | In autumn the older leaves and branchlets turn to shades of yellow and orange before dropping from the tree. |
| What are your personal thoughts about this plant? | China fir is best used as a specimen, at the corner of a large building, or as a large-scale screen planted 15 to 20 feet apart. Young specimens maintain a fairly tight crown but they open up with age, becoming asymmetrical with large pieces of the crown missing. It works well in oriental gardens and the foliage keeps well indoors in a vase of water. Not a tree you would use everywhere, China fir has its place as an occasional accent and conversation piece, particularly in a park or on a golf course. It is too big for a residential landscape but useful on campuses and other large-scale landscapes. |
| Wildlife | N/A |
| Ethnobotany | The wood is pale yellow to white, density 0.4-0.5, soft but durable, easily worked, and resistant to insects and termites. It is used in house building, for furniture, floor, panels, packaging, and coffins. It is suitable for reforestation and planting along the roads of mountainous provinces, in subtropical evergreen, coniferous and mixed broad-leaved forests (FIPI 1996). It is the most important fast-growing timber tree of the warm regions south of the Chang Jiang valley; it is propagated by seed, cuttings, or suckers. The wood is strongly resistant to rot, is not eaten by termites, and is easily worked; it is used in constructing buildings, bridges, ships, and lamp posts, in furniture manufacture, and for wood fiber.
Source: http://www.conifers.org/cu/Cunninghamia.php
This genus was named for two men. In the words of Robert Brown (1866), who described the genus, “In communicating specimens of this plant to the late M. Richard, for his intended monograph of Coniferae, I added some remarks on its structure, agreeing with those here made. I at the same time requested that, if he objected to Mr. Salisbury’s Belis as liable to be confounded with Bellis, the genus might be named Cunninghamia, to commemorate the merits of Mr. James Cunningham, an excellent observer in his time, by whom this plant was discovered; and in honor of Mr. Allan Cunningham, the very deserving botanist who accompanied Mr. Oxley in his first expedition into the interior of New South Wales, and Captain King in all his voyages of survey of the Coasts of New Holland.” Allan Cunningham is also commemorated in two other conifer families, through Araucaria cunninghamii and Podocarpus cunninghamii. |
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