Stinking Cedar

Extinction seems inevitable

The Florida torreya is a dioecious conifer that can grow up to 18 m in height. When bruised, the leaves give off a pungent odour. The male cones are light yellow.

The plant was discovered in 1835 and in 1838 Arnott named the genus after the botanist John Torrey (1796-1873).

In the 20^th century this species was widely harvested for construction, firewood for steam ships and as a Christmas tree. After 1950 the species became exceedingly rare.

Ecology and habitat

Torreya taxifolia is now an exceedingly rare endemic of north Florida and south Georgia. It grows in calcareous, rocky soils along the Appalachicola River. The climate is warm and humid with a sporadic snowfall in winter when the temperature falls below zero. It grows mainly in the shade in forested ravines often full of lianas.

Threat

Despite being logged up until the 1950s Torreya taxifolia was doing all right (with more than 600,000 individuals) but since this time a fungus has decimated this species. The remaining population now only numbers 500 – 600 individuals. Of these less than 10 are producing male or (because the species is dioecious) female cones. The rest consists of stumps with off shoots that have no chance of reproducing.

In this context a survival programme has been successful in being able to cultivate this species outside its native habitat. However the fungus (probably a Fusarium) is still able to attack those reintroduced to the wild. A natural resistance has not been observed as of yet.  As things stand at present, extinction seems inevitable. Research into the cause of the decline is continuing.