Kauaʻi record · kba_plant_platycladus_orientalis
Oriental Arborvitae
Platycladus orientalis
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About Oriental Arborvitae
Oriental Arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to northeastern China and Korea in temperate rocky woodland. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting within the 1910–1960 forestry program; no species-specific year is available from the reviewed index; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.
Kauaʻi evidence
Taxonomic identity, tree form, diagnostic morphology and island occurrence use the linked reviewed sources. Historical planting, cultivation, naturalization and invasive status are separate. Generated imagery is not occurrence evidence. The 1918–1959 Kauaʻi reforestation working register records 100 plants under Thuja orientalis/platycladus orientalis across 1 entries dated 1943. These are recorded planting quantities, not counts of surviving trees, and they do not by themselves establish current persistence, naturalization, or ecological impact. Source: Kauaʻi Reforestation Plantings 1918–1959 working register (user-supplied; reconciled 6 October 2026).
Names and classification
- Scientific name
- Platycladus orientalis
- Common names
- Oriental Arborvitae · Chinese thuja
- Other names
- Platycladus orientalis · Oriental arborvitae · Chinese thuja · Thuja orientalis
- Record type
- Species
Kauaʻi occurrence and status
- Kauaʻi occurrence
- Recorded on Kauaʻi
- Origin
- Introduced
- Conservation status
- Not yet assessed
- Evidence date
- 2026-10-06
- Evidence limits
- Current survival on Kauaʻi, number of trees, occupied habitat, flowering or fruiting, recruitment, population trend, and ecological effects are all unconfirmed; no naturalization or invasive severity is inferred from the historical planting record.
Habitat and ecology
- Habitats
- Not yet assessed
- Food and resource needs
- Not yet assessed
- Reproduction
- Separate pollen and seed cones occur on the same tree and are wind-pollinated; woody cones open at maturity. Kauaʻi cone set, seed viability, and recruitment are unknown.
- Shelter
- Not yet assessed
- Growth form
- Evergreen coniferous tree
Threats and conservation
- Monitoring
- Not yet assessed
- Data gaps
- Current population extent and trajectory · Additional species-specific ecological and conservation sources
Process and seasonal context
- Seasonal timing
- Not yet assessed
- Seasonal description
- Oriental Arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) is a post-contact introduced tree documented on Kauaʻi through historical forestry planting records. The reviewed records do not establish present survival. Native to northeastern China and Korea in temperate rocky woodland. A 1980 forestry ledger documents Kauaʻi planting within the 1910–1960 forestry program; no species-specific year is available from the reviewed index; it does not establish current survival, reproduction, or naturalization.