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Taiwania (Taiwania cryptomerioides) is a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly listed in the segregate family Taxodiaceae. It is native to eastern Asia, growing in the mountains of central Taiwan, and locally in southwest China and adjoining Myanmar and northern Vietnam. It is endangered by illegal logging for its valuable wood in many areas. It is very likely that the range was more extensive in the past before extensive felling for the wood.

It is the largest tree in Asia, reported to heights of 80 m tall and with a trunk up to at least 3 m diameter. The leavesThis article is about the leaf a plant organ. See Leaf (disambiguation) for other meanings. In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the chloroplast con are needle-like or awl-like and 8-15 mm long on young trees up to about 100 years old, then gradually becoming more scale-like, 3-7 mm long, on mature trees. The conesA cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta ( conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the seed-producing female cone. The male cones, which produces are small, 15-25 mm long, with about 15-30 thin, fragile scales, each scale with two seedThis writeup is about biological seeds; for the Buddhist metaphor, see bija. A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. The importance of the seed relative to more primitive forms of reproduction and dispersal is attested to by the sus.

The populations in mainland Asia are treated as a distinct species Taiwania flousiana by some botanists, but the claimed differences between these and the Taiwanese population are not consistent when a number of specimens from each area are compared.

The genus is named after the island of Taiwan, where it first became known to the botanical community in 1910.

The wood is soft, but durable and attractively spicy scented, and was in very high demand in the past, particularly for templeThe word temple has different meanings in the fields of architecture, religion, geography, anatomy, and education. Religion A temple is a structure reserved for religious worship or sacrifice. Some religions use this generic term: Buddhism ( Shaolin) Temp building and coffinA coffin is a box used for the display and burial or cremation of a dead human body. Some people mistakenly believe that a coffin is a tapered hexagonal or octagonal box used for a burial, and that a rectangular coffin ought to be called a casket instead.s. The rarity of the tree and its slow growth in plantationA Plantation is a deliberately cultivated area, for example: a large farm, growing one species of plant only, eg. Pine plantations produce raw material for paper-making. Tobacco and coffee also grow on plantations. During the 1800s, Slave labour typicallys means legal supplies are now very scarce; the species has legal protection in China.