Cathaya occurs as genus within personal Pinaceae and has one known residing coinage, Cathaya argyrophylla. Cathaya occurs as member of the subfamily Laricoideae, virtually all closely related to Pseudotsuga and Larix. Another metal money, C. nanchuanensis, is currently treated as a synonym, as it doesn't differ from either C. argyrophylla in any characters.

Cathaya is confined to the limited front yard around southern China, in the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and southeast Sichuan. These are observed in steep, narrow mountain slopes at 950-1800 m altitude, on limestone soils. The big people has been reduced by on top-cutting prior to its scientific discovery & protection around 1950.

A leaves are needle-like, Ii.Five-Five cm hanker, st& ciliated (haired) margins whenever young, and develop within the stems in a volute pattern. A cones are 3-Five cm hanker, using astir 15-20 scales, for each one shell bearing 2 winged seeds.

Of these or even deuce plant scientist, unhappy using the idethe of a recently genus around such a familiar personal, tried to shoehorn it into more existent genera, when Pseudotsuga argyrophylla & Tsuga argyrophylla. These are even so super distinct from either each one genera, & these combinations are non currently utilized.

Fossils of extinct metal money of Cathaya come abundant inside European brown coal deposits dating from between 10-30 million years ago.