Chamaecyparis pisifera
Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ), illustration
The Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ), also thread cypress or Erbsenfrüchtige called cypress, is a plant species belonging to the genus of false cypress (Chamaecyparis ) belongs within the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ). This tree species preferred sites with rich soils in high rainfall and humid mountainous areas.
The Sawara cypress is one of the "Five trees of Kiso ", which were made in 1708 in the Owari fief under protection.
Features
The Sawara cypress is an evergreen, small to medium sized tree that can reach a height of 50 meters, with a pyramidal habit. The bark is reddish- brown. The branches are branched in a plane and have a flattened cross-section. The leaves are scale-like and arranged in four rows on the branches and overlap closely. They are about 3 millimeters long. This results in two types of glossy green, scale-like leaves, " surface sheets " and "edge leaves ". The area of leaves have a translucent resin gland. Grated branches smell of resin.
They are monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). The male flowers are pale - brown. The female cones are available at the branch ends and spherical - usually initially green - purple or often bluish, becoming brown in the tire. They consist of mostly ten cone scales. The mature, spherical cones are about 5 to 8 millimeters in size. There are ten formed to 20 wide winged seeds per cone.
There are numerous cultivated varieties, which differ significantly from each other in size, growth form and color. Since there is also different from most other cypresses many, very different cultivated forms, a clear determination of the species is difficult.
Origin and use
The Sawara cypress is native to Japan where it is known as Sawara (Japanese椹). It thrives on moist soils in humid, temperate climate.
It is used as an ornamental plant in gardens and parks.
System
The German botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold and Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini published in 1844 a description under the taxon Retinispora squarrosa in the second volume of their common Flora japonica plant. However, the Austrian botanist Stephan Ladislaus finite ordered the species under the currently valid taxon Chamaecyparis pisifera to the genus of cypresses.
Another synonym for this type Chamaecyparis obtusa is f plumosa Carrière.
Cultivated forms
The cultivated forms of Sawara cypress are divided into four groups, Filifera, Nana, Plumosa and Squarrosa group. The Plumosa group is the largest. Here is a selection of varieties of the four groups:
- ' Filifera ': This species is now rarely planted. It has slender branches and dark green leaves.
- ' Filifera Aurea': A variety with broad pyramidal habit, which is 3 meters high. The whip-like drooping branches bear golden yellow foliage.
- 'Nana': This dwarf reaches a height of about 30 centimeters; she has a hemispherical dense growth. The very short branches are leafy dark green.
- ' Plumosa ': This cultivar grows globose to columnar and can be 6 feet tall. The short, medium green leaves are less pointed than the variety ' Squarrosa '.
- ' Plumosa Aurea': The leaves are yellow-green.
- ' Plumosa Compressa ': This dwarf variety is about 45 inches high and has yellow-green leaves.
- ' Boulevard ': This form has a narrow conical habit; this variant is up to 3 meters high. She has silver-blue leaves.
- ' Squarrosa ': The growth is broadly pyramidal; this cultivar can reach a height of 20 meters. She has pale blue-gray leaves that turn dull purple in winter.
- ' Squarrosa Intermedia ': This variant is a dwarf variety.
Pictures
- Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ) - Habit:
Cultivated form bushy growing.
- Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ) - branches with " leaves " and the pin:
- Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ) - trunk, branches and bark:
View of trunk and branches