Everything about Glyptostrobus totally explained
Glyptostrobus pensilis, also known as
Chinese Swamp Cypress, is the sole living species in the genus
Glyptostrobus. It is native to subtropical southeastern
China, from
Fujian west to southeast
Yunnan, and also very locally in southern
Vietnam.
It is a medium-sized to large
tree, reaching 30 m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m, possibly more. The
leaves are
deciduous, spirally arranged but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, 5-20 mm long and 1-2 mm broad, but 2-3 mm long and scale-like on shoots in the upper crown. The
cones are green maturing yellow-brown,
pear-shaped, 2-3 cm long and 1-1.5 cm diameter, broadest near the apex. They open when mature to release the small, 5-6 mm long, winged
seeds.
It typically grows in
river banks,
ponds and
swamps, growing in water up to 60 cm deep. Like the related genus
Taxodium, it produces 'cypress knees' when growing in water, thought to help transport
oxygen to the
roots.
The species is nearly
extinct in the wild due to overcutting for its valuable decay-resistant, scented
wood, but it's also fairly widely planted along the banks of
rice paddies where its roots help to stabilise the banks by reducing soil
erosion.
The genus once had a much wider range, covering most of the
Northern Hemisphere, including the high Arctic in the
Paleocene. 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
ice ages.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Glyptostrobus'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://glyptostrobus.totallyexplained.com">Glyptostrobus Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
