The tallest tree in Taiwan, 台灣杉（Taiwania cryptomerioides）

What is the tallest tree in Taiwan? The answer is the Taiwanese cedar which is also called 台灣杉(Taiwania cryptomerioides).

How tall can Taiwanese cedar grow? According to Professor Yang KuoJueng 楊國禎 of Jin-Yi University 靜宜大學, this tree can grow to 90 meters http://e-info.org.tw/topic/plant/2004/pl04082501.htm. The Wikipedia online dictionary reported that the tree can grow to 80 meters; http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/台灣杉 [ However, as I had mentioned this data to my relatives in Taipei, they raised doubt about this number; because 90 meter tall means the tree is equivalent to a 40-50 story house. That seems like an exaggeration. I do not know the number yet. Readers, if you have better data, please let me know. Thank you.]

Taiwanese cedar tree is actually a native to Taiwan. The other places that you can find the same cedar tree is in the Yun-Lan 雲南 province of China. But the same cedar tree grew in Yun-Lan雲南 is still called the Taiwanese cedar because when Japanese scientists discovered this particular cedar tree, they named the tree the Taiwanese cedar. This discovery and naming happened long before the Chinese discovered their equivalent cedar trees in Yun-Lan.

Japanese has a passion on their own cedar tree which is called 柳杉（Cryptomeria japonica), or the Japanese cedar. The Japanese initially imported the Japanese cedar tree into Taiwan; later they discovered that the native Taiwanese cedar was actually superior to their Japanese cedar when the trees were used for construction. The Japanese cedar can grow only to 40 meters.

You can find both the Taiwanese cedar and the Japanese cedar at Hsi-Tou 溪頭 and Sun-Link-Sea 杉林溪. You can distinguish both cedars by their external shapes: The Taiwanese cedar tree looks like a Christmas tree while the Japanese cedar doesn't look like a Christmas tree. You can touch the leaves of the Japanese cedar, but not the leaves of the Taiwanese cedar because the leaves of the Taiwanese cedar are needle-like.

By the way, by looking at the photos posted in this story, can you tell which one is the Taiwanese cedar, or 台灣杉（Taiwania cryptomerioides; and which one is the Japanese cedar, or 柳杉（Cryptomeria japonica)?