Biodiv Sci ›› 2024, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (11): 24378.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2024378

• Historical Events • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The history of discovering Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Hong Qian1*,Guofan Shao2,Qijing Liu3*   

  1. 1 Research and Collections Center, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL 62703, USA

    2 Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

    3 College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

  • Received:2024-08-26 Online:2024-11-20 Published:2025-01-13
  • Contact: Qijing Liu

Abstract:

This article overviews the history of discovering, naming and publishing the living-fossil species Metasequoia glyptostroboides, and summarizes the key points of the two pieces of the posthumous work by Chan Wang and Chi-Ju Hsueh published in this issue. The species was discovered in 1943, rather than 1941 as reported in some literature. Wang collected the specimens of the tree on July 21, 1943, and considered it as a new species but could not determine its taxonomic affiliation. Wang was the first collecting and studying the specimens of the species. Wang had one of the specimens of the species passed to Wan-Chun Cheng in 1944 for further identification. Wan-Chun Cheng sent his graduate student, Chi-Ju Hsueh, to collect additional specimens in 1946. Hsen-Hsu Hu and Wan-Chun Cheng published Metasequoia glyptostroboides on May 15, 1948.