Glyptostrobus
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Glyptostrobus is a small genus of conifers in the family Cupressaceae (formerly in the family Taxodiaceae). The sole living species, Glyptostrobus pensilis, is native to subtropical southeastern China, from Fujian west to southeast Yunnan, and also very locally in northern Vietnam and Bolikhamsai province of eastern Laos near the Vietnam border.[1][2]
Fossil record
The genus formerly had a much wider range, covering most of the Northern Hemisphere, including the high Arctic in the Paleocene and Eocene. The oldest known fossils are late Cretaceous in age, found in North America. It contributed greatly to the coal swamps of the Cenozoic era. It was reduced to its current range before and during the Pleistocene ice ages.[3]
Description
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G. pensilis is a medium-sized to large tree, reaching Template:Convert tall and with a trunk diameter of up to Template:Convert, possibly more. The leaves are deciduous, spirally arranged but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, Template:Convert long and Template:Convert broad, but Template:Convert long and scale-like on shoots in the upper crown. The cones are green maturing yellow-brown, pear-shaped, Template:Convert long and Template:Convert diameter, broadest near the apex. They open when mature to release the small, Template:Convert long, winged seeds.
Habitat
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It typically grows in river banks, ponds and swamps, growing in water up to Template:Convert deep. Like the related genus Taxodium, it produces 'cypress knees' when growing in water, thought to help transport oxygen to the roots.
Conservation
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The species is nearly extinct in the wild due to overcutting for its valuable decay-resistant, scented wood, but it is also fairly widely planted along the banks of rice paddies where its roots help to stabilise the banks by reducing soil erosion.
References
External links
Template:Sister project Template:Acrogymnospermae classification Template:Cupressaceae Template:Taxonbar
- ↑ Nguyễn Đúc Tố Luu, Philip Ian Thomas, 2004. Conifers of VietnamTemplate:Dead link. 94 pp. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, NERC, UK.
- ↑ Leonid V. Averyanov, Ke Loc Phan, Tien Hiep Nguyen, Sinh Khang Nguyen, Tien Vinh Nguyen and Thuy Duyen Pham, 2009. Preliminary Observation of Native Glyptostrobus pensilis (Taxodiaceae) Stands in Vietnam. Taiwania, 54(3): 191-212 Template:Webarchive.
- ↑ LePage, B.A. 2007. The Taxonomy and Biogeographic History of Glyptostrobus. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 48(2): 359-426. Script error: No such module "doi".