page_title: Parrotia persica
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Parrotia persica / Description
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of a Persian Ironwooden (Parrotia persica en ). Photo taken at the Hershey Gardens in Hershey, Pennsylvania where it was identified. Camera and Exposure Details: Camera: Nikon D50 Lens: Nikon 18-200mm VR Exposure: 0mm (0mm in 35mm equivalent) f/0 @ 0 s.
context_page_description: Parrotia persica, the Persian ironwood, is a deciduous tree in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to Iran's Caspian region and Iranian Azerbaijan and it is endemic in the Alborz mountains.
  The species was named by Carl Anton von Meyer to honor his predecessor at the University of Dorpat, German naturalist Georg Friedrich Parrot, who botanized in the Alborz on a mountaineering expedition in the 1830s.
  Another species Parrotia subaequalis originates from eastern China. There are five disjunct
  populations of P. subaequalis in eastern China: two each in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and one in Anhui
  . A full account of this sibling species can be found in an article: 'The Chinese Parrotia: A Sibling Species of the
  Persian Parrotia' by Jianhua Li and Peter Del Tredici.
  This species is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. P. subaequalis is also considered critically endangered in the China Red Data Book, with a very narrow distribution range. The five known relict populations of P. subaequalis comprise no more than 100 reproductive individuals. Therefore, this species has high conservation priority.
context_section_description: Parrotia persica grows to 30 m (98 ft) tall and 8–15 m (26–49 ft) broad, with a trunk up to 150 cm (59 in) in diameter. The bark is smooth, pinkish-brown flaking/peeling to leave cinnamon, pink, green, and pale yellow patches in a similar manner to plane trees. The leaves are alternate, ovoid, often slightly lop-sided, 6–15 cm (2–6 in) long and 4–10 cm (2–4 in) across, with wavy margins; they are glossy green, turning a rich purple to brilliant red in autumn.
  The flowers are somewhat similar to witch-hazel flowers but dark red; they are likewise produced in late winter on bare stems, but differ in having only four rounded sepals with no petals; the stamens are however fairly conspicuous, forming a dense red cluster 3–4 mm (¹⁄₈–³⁄₁₆ in) across. The fruit is a two-parted capsule containing two seeds, one in each half.
  The richness of Iran's flora and the variety of its vegetation results from the variety and richness of its physical-geographic and natural-historic conditions and from its compound history influenced by the remote florist regions.
  Relict genera of the tertiary period can be frequently found in all the zones of North of Iran especially in Talysh. They are the Persian iron tree (Parrotia persica), the Lenkoran acacia (Albizia julibrissin), the basket oak (Quercus castaneifolia), the Caucasian persimmon (Diospyros lotus), the evergreen shrub  Ruscus hyrcana, the box tree (Buxus hyrcana), etc. There are 240 endemic species of plants in North and North West Iran and also south-east Azerbaijan.
caption: The tree's many branches and distinctive colored bark
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