Taxodium
Habit | tree
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Lifespan: | ⌛ | perennial |
Water: | ◍ | wet, moist |
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Features: | ✓ | evergreen, deciduous |
Taxodium > |
Taxodium (pronounced /tækˈsoʊdiəm/)[1] is a genus of one to three species (depending on taxonomic opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The generic name is derived from the Latin word taxus, meaning "yew," and the Greek word εἶδος (eidos), meaning "similar to."[2] Within the family, Taxodium is most closely related to Chinese Swamp Cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis) and Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica).
Species of Taxodium occur in the southern part of the North American continent and are deciduous in the north and semi-evergreen to evergreen in the south. They are large trees, reaching 100 - 150 ft tall and 2 - 3 m (exceptionally 11 m ft ) trunk diameter. The needle-like leaves, 0.5 - 2 cm long, are borne spirally on the shoots, twisted at the base so as to appear in two flat rows on either side of the shoot. The cones are globose, 2 - 3.5 cm diameter, with 10-25 scales, each scale with 1-2 seeds; they are mature in 7-9 months after pollination, when they disintegrate to release the seeds. The male (pollen) cones are produced in pendulous racemes, and shed their pollen in early spring.
ExpandRead about Taxodium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Cultivation
Propagation
Pests and diseases
Species
The three taxa of Taxodium are treated here as distinct species, though some botanists treat them in just one or two species, with the others considered as varieties of the first described. The three are distinct in ecology, growing in different environments, but hybridise where they meet.
- Taxodium ascendens Brongn. - Pond Cypress
The Pond Cypress occurs within the range of Bald Cypress, but only on the southeastern coastal plain from North Carolina to Louisiana. It occurs in still blackwater rivers, ponds and swamps without silt-rich flood deposits.
- Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. - Bald Cypress
The most familiar species in the genus is the Bald Cypress, native to much of the southeastern United States, from Delaware to Texas, especially Louisiana and inland up the Mississippi River to southern Indiana. It occurs mainly along rivers with silt-rich flood deposits.
- Taxodium mucronatum Ten., 1853 - Montezuma Cypress, Ahuehuete
The Montezuma Cypress occurs from the Lower Rio Grande Valley south to the highlands of southern Mexico, and differs from the other two species in being substantially evergreen. A specimen in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, the Árbol del Tule, is 43 m ft tall and has the greatest trunk thickness of all trees, 11.42 m ft in diameter. It is a riparian tree, occurring on the banks of streams and rivers, not in swamps like the Bald and Pond Cypresses.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
- ↑ Everett, Thomas H. (1982). The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture. 10. Taylor & Francis. p. 3299. ISBN 9780824072407. http://books.google.com/books?id=KeGzp-YXrPYC&.
External links
- w:Taxodium. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Taxodium QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)