The discovery of the relict Cathaya argyrophylla or Cathay Silver Fir in a remote wilderness area of Kwangsi province (now Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) in Southern China in May, 1955, created more than a ripple of excitement in scientific circles.

With the subsequent knowledge that it represented a living link to circa 10 million year old Pliocene fossils of the Tertiary period found previously in Europe, it was soon realised that here was another “living fossil” conifer genus and its discovery was reminiscent of the finding, also in China, of the ultimately world famous Metasequoia glyptostroboides or Dawn Redwood 14 years earlier in 1941.