Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & W. C. Cheng

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2025, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 18, Willdenowia 55 (1), pp. 107-144 : 117-118

Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & W. C. Cheng

A It: Italy: Piemonte, Grugliasco (Torino), 45.066419°N, 7.589950°E, 290 m, public park of university campus (University of Torino), 12 Jun 2024, Lonati, Nota & Ravetto Enri (B). – Metasequoia glyptostroboides is a “living fossil” discovered in China in the past century and described in 1948 ( Hu & Cheng 1948). After its discovery, the species was widely distributed for ornamental purposes, currently cultivated in over 50 countries on all continents ( Ma 2007). In the Euro+Med area, the species is reported in large-scale cultivation in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria ( Raab-Straube 2014 +), and only in Great Britain it is given as a casual alien escaped from cultivation ( POWO 2024p; planted in parks and by roads, rarely self-sown, see Stace 2019: 55). In the above locality two large specimens, cultivated as ornamental trees in a public garden, regularly produce hundreds of seedlings that survive in places protected from summer draught, many of them having grown up to 5- or 6-year-old saplings by now. Based on our field observations, M. glyptostroboides is to be considered a new casual alien species in Italy.

M. Lonati, G. Nota & S. Ravetto Enri