Who is Torreya taxifolia?

Genus Torreya is a primitive member of the yew family (Taxaceae). Six species of this genus are known worldwide: 3 in China, one in Japan and Korea, one in California, and one in the Florida panhandle. The Florida species is by far the most endangered and is the subject of our concern.

  
L: A fleshy sarcotesta surrounds the single large seed of T. tax
R: Connie Barlow with STATE CHAMPION Torreya californica near Santa Cruz CA

Torreya taxifolia (often referred to as T. tax or Florida torreya) is an evergreen conifer tree historically found only along a 65 kilometer stretch of the Apalachicola River of northern Florida and the adjacent sliver of southern Georgia. It favors the cool and shady ravines that dissect the high bluffs of the river's east shore. Despite its current extreme endemism, the species was once a prominent mid- and under-story member of its forest community, which includes an odd mix of northern and southern species: towering beech and hickory next to tall evergreen magnolia, and surrounded by stubby needle palm.

  
The approximate native range of
Torreya taxifolia, marked by orange.

A Pious Pilgrimage

In the spring of 1875, distinguished Harvard botanist Asa Gray embarked upon a trip to the panhandle of Florida, to "make a pious pilgrimage to the secluded native haunts of that rarest of trees, the Torreya taxifolia". The trees observed by Gray grew up to a meter in circumference and were as much as 20 meters tall.

  

The Strange Mix of Vegetation Along the Apalachicola River

Left: hickory trunk in front of evergreen magnolia canopy. Center: beech trunk.


Several shrubby palm species beneath a large beech in Florida's Torreya State Park, along the Apalachicola River. The botanical mix in this park is a treasure because the same site served, just 18,000 years ago as a crucial "pocket reserve" in which the botanical richness of today's southern and central Appalachians took refuge at the peak of the last peak glacial advance.

Learn why T. tax is at the brink of EXTINCTION


WWW www.TorreyaGuardians.org