Distribution of J. pingii based on GBIF data processed to remove duplicates, misidentifications, cultivated specimens, and extralimital occurrences (GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.8ubv5p, 2025.01.08).
Distribution of J. pingii based on GBIF data processed to remove duplicates, misidentifications, cultivated specimens, and extralimital occurrences (GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.8ubv5p, 2025.01.08).
Juniperus pingii
Ping's juniper, 垂枝香柏 chuizhi xiangbai [Chinese].
This is one of the central Asian turbinate-cone junipers, a taxonomically complex group subdivided mainly on the basis of molecular studies that have almost all been performed by R. P. Adams and coworkers; the principal such studies were by Adams and Schwarzbach (2012, 2013); see the cladogram of Juniperus for a summary of relationships in the group. J. pingii shares a subclade with J. carinata, J. przewalskii, J. komarovii, and J. convallium. J. carinata in particular was initially described as a variety of J. pingii, a ranking that still has merit.
There are two varieties, per Adams (2014):
The named varieties are questionable, being known only from the immediate vicinity of the type collections, and differing from the type only in minor characters. They have not to my knowledge received molecular study, but Adams (2014) finds them readily distinguishable on the basis of morphology. See POWO for citations and synonyms for the species and varieties, excepting the taxon there called var. wilsonii.
The variety commonly called J. pingii var. wilsonii, by far the most geographically extensive, is here treated as J. squamata var. wilsonii; as Farjon (2010) notes, various authors have treated it as a variety of either J. pingii or J. squamata, but molecular data from multiple sources (Leslie et al. 2012, Adams and Schwarzbach 2013) now indicate that these two species are in different subclades of the turbinate-cone junipers, and status as a variety of J. squamata now seems secure.
Monoecious, procumbent or erect shrubs to small trees, but reputedly attaining a height of as much as 30 m. Branches spreading or ascending, very dense in procumbent shrubs, forming a spreading or rounded crown. Bark on large stems fissured, exfoliating in long strips, weathering grey-brown. Twigs short, drooping, ultimate branchlets in shrubs 10-30 mm long, but much longer in trees; variably quadrangular to round, covered with imbricate scale leaves. Leaves in alternate whorls of 3, rarely decussate, imbricate, decurrent at base, appressed with incurved apices or sometimes curved but free, lanceolate to broadly subulate, the free portion broadest below the midpoint, incurved, 3-5 × 1-1.5 mm; abaxial surface keeled or ridged, especially towards the apex; adaxial surface smooth, glaucous green with two whitish stomatal bands separated by a flat or slightly raised midrib; margins entire; apex acuminate to pungent. Pollen cones axillary on very short dwarfed shoots, solitary, globose, 3-4 mm diameter, with 6-9 microsporophylls, ternate, rarely decussate, more or less cordate, obtuse or cuspidate, bearing 2-3 abaxial globose pollen sacs. Seed cones axillary on very short dwarfed shoots, developing in two seasons into purplish black or bluish black ovoid cones 6-9 × 5-6 mm. Bract-scale complexes 3, rarely 4, entirely fused, most discernible in soft succulent-pulpy mature cones. Seeds ovoid-globose, 5-6 × 4 mm, with several shallow, resinous grooves or pits towards the base (Farjon 2010). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.
The varieties are distinguished as follows (Farjon 2010, Adams 2014):
China: NW Yunnan and Xizang (Tibet). Var. pingii is in W Sichuan, NW Yunnan, and SE Xizang (Tibet); it is classified as "near threatened." Var. miehei is known only from the upper Zangbo River basin of Xizang (Tibet) (Farjon 2010).
The IUCN assigns this species a conservation status of "Near Threatened", but that assessment conflates J. pingii with J. squamata var. wilsonii, which is a far more widespread taxon; a 2025 inventory found that GBIF listed 1017 occurrences of J. pingii, of which 621 were misclassified J. squamata var. wilsonii or J. carinata, 27 were from cultivated specimens or from outside the species' known distribution, and 190 were duplicate collections (same year, same location), leaving a total of 168 known collections covering the period 1921 to 2007. The absence of any collections since 2007 is particularly striking (GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.8ubv5p). In view of this scarcity of collections, J. pingii should be assessed as "Data Deficient" and, if its status were better known, it would likely rate an assessment of "Endangered" or worse.
No data as of 2025.01.08.
Occasionally seen in horticulture, though it is common for specimens to be misidentified as closely-related taxa such as J. recurva or J. squamata.
No data as of 2025.01.08.
The epithet honors Jin Bangzheng (金邦正) (1886-1946), whose name during his life was Romanized as P. C. Ping; he was a founding member of the Science Society of China, and a president of Tsinghua University.
Adams, Robert P. 2014. Junipers of the World: The Genus Juniperus. Fourth edition. Trafford Publishing. Brief versions of the descriptions are available online at Adam's website, www.juniperus.org.
Adams, R. P., and A. E. Schwarzbach. 2012. Taxonomy of the turbinate shaped seed cone taxa of Juniperus, section Sabina: sequence analysis of nrDNA and four cpDNA regions. Phytologia 94(3):388-403.
Adams, R. P., and A. E. Schwarzbach. 2013. Taxonomy of the turbinate shaped seed cone taxa of Juniperus, section Sabina: Revisited. Phytologia 95:122–124.
Farjon, Aljos. 2010. A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.
Ferré, Y. 1944. Morphology des Graines de Gymnospermes. Bulletin de la Société d'histoire naturelle de Toulouse 79:76. Available: Gallica, accessed 2020.01.23.
Leslie, A. B., J. M. Beaulieu, H. S. Rai, P. R. Crane, M. J. Donoghue, and S. Mathews. 2012. Hemisphere-scale differences in conifer evolutionary dynamics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(40):16217–16221. Note that the cladistic analysis of Juniperus appears only in the Supplement.
The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.
Farjon (2005) provides a detailed account, with illustrations.
Last Modified 2025-01-08
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