Glyptostrobus pensilis

Branches of Chinazypresse ( Glyptostrobus pensilis ) with pin

The Chinazypresse, also called water spruce ( Glyptostrobus pensilis ) is the only species of the genus tart of water trees ( Glyptostrobus ) from the family of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ). It represents a living fossil

• 2.1 Paläobotanik

• 5.1 First description and synonyms

• 6.1 Notes and references

Description

Habit

The Chinazypresse is reached, a tree, the growth heights of 8 to 25 meters. The trunk is widened at a height of about 70 centimeters thick and furrowed. It can be achieved in this area trunk diameter of 60 to 120 centimeters. The bark has a gray to gray-brown color, and dissolves in long and irregular stripes of the tree. The canopy is a conical shape. There are long and short shoots. The lower branches are more horizontally from the upper branches are more upright.

Root

The Chinazypresse forms in youth a taproot, which sets the length growth in an age of around 10 years or bends to one side. It penetrates into the bottom depths of 2 meters. Old trees have highly developed lateral roots. The root timber consists of a loose wood tissue, which has a high proportion of aerenchyma. Each tree is of one to two breaths roots that extend up to 70 cm above the ground or water level.

Wood

The wood of the Chinazypresse is soft, light and finely structured. The reddish brown heartwood differs in color from yellowish brown sapwood. It is resistant to moisture. The density at a moisture content of 15% from 0.37 to 0.42 g / cm ³. The root wood with a density of 0.12 g / cm ³ even lighter and softer.

Foliage

The Chinazypresse is a semi- evergreen tree, which produces three different types of leaves out of which remains only one form in the winter on the tree. The first type are shed leaves that are spirally arranged on young or multi-year long shoots. They have white stomata are relatively thick and are 2-3 millimeters long. They remain two to three years on the tree and are also green in winter. The second type are thin needle-like leaves, which are double-spaced on short shoots. They have a narrow base and sharply pointed. At the leaf surface runs along the midrib a gap opening series. They are 1-3 inches long and between 1.5 and 4 mm wide. You fall off in winter. The third type are pfriemliche, slightly curved leaves, arranged either radially projecting or three rows are on short shoots. The Apex can be both blunt and pointed. They are 4-11 mm long. You fall off in winter.

Flowers, cones and seeds

The Chinazypresse is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). Young trees form only female cones. The flowering period is from January to February. The elliptical about 3 mm long and 4 mm wide male cones consist of 15 to 20 scale-like stamens. They are beginning to develop green and stain the heyday purple bluish to dark blue. The approximately 2 mm long and 1 mm wide female cones are located at the ends of short shoots. They consist of 20 to 22 green, egg-shaped seed scales arranged like roof tiles. The egg-shaped at first green light brown when ripe in October cones are 2 to 2.5 inches long and 1.3 to 1.5 inches wide. The wedge-shaped towards the base expiring and woody cone scales have a rounded apex. Except for the Apex deck and the seed scales are fused together. Each pin contains seven to ten seeds.

The brown seeds 5 to 7 mm long and 3-4 mm wide. They are elliptical in shape and appear to be slightly compressed. Each seed has a 4-7 millimeter long wings. The thousand-seed weight is 12.5 grams.

Are per seedling four to five cotyledons ( cotyledons ) are present.

The chromosome number is 2n = 22

Distribution and location

The Chinazypresse is endemic in China. The center of their natural range extends across the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, as well as middle parts of the Fujian Province and the lower reaches of the Minjiang River. A majority of the stock was artificially created; but there are still natural populations. More stocks are in the eastern and western parts of Guangdong Province, in the eastern and northern Fujian, eastern Jiangxi and southeastern Guangxi and Yunnan. It was commonly grown as an ornamental tree in the mountains of Lushan as well as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong.

1812 was the first field trial in the U.S. after 1830 in Europe. The Chinazypresse is threatened by logging extinction.

The Chinazypresse is a tree species of the warm and humid climate. The rainfall is natural range to 1,600 mm / year. They prefer locations with high humidity and alluvial soils with high water supply. Through their breathing roots it is adapted to fluctuating water levels. The pH should be between 7 and 8. A salt content of the soil of up to 0.28% will endure. She is a full sunlight.

Paleobotany

During the Cretaceous period were Glyptostrobus species of the most common representatives of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ). The genus was formerly a spread in many parts of the northern hemisphere. The widest distribution it had in the Paleocene. There were important trees of the coal swamps. In its present area the species was with the now single species before and pushed back during the ice ages already. Fossil remains of the genus presented prime targets for the study of seed plant evolution dar.

Diseases and Pests

Stocks, which were planted in Japan are infected by the fungus Cercospora sequoiae that evokes the strong needle and drive losses and can cause the plant to die. The disease was transmitted to the Chinazypresse probably from the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica).

Use

Because of the very intense strong root system, the Chinazypresse is often planted along embankments and dams to fix this.

The wood is used as construction and furniture wood and because of the resistance to moisture in the bridge. Because of the buoyancy in the water swimming belts and rescue rings are made from it.

System

First description and synonyms

This species was described in 1828 under the taxon Thuja pensilis in the second edition of the work A description of the genus Pinus of the English botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert, which was developed with the assistance of David Don; the description itself is the in 1801 deceased Irish- British botanist George Leonard Staunton attributed. Only five years later in 1833 another description by the French botanist Adolphe Brongniart under the taxon Taxodium japonicum ( Thunb. ex L. f ) Brongn. var heterophyllum Brongn. published, in which the plant was considered a subspecies of the Japanese cedar.

The Austrian botanist Stephan Ladislaus finite, which referred to the recent description as a basionym, the plant presented again as a separate species in 1847 under the taxon Glyptostrobus heterophyllus ( Brongn. ) Endl. in a newly established separate genus Glyptostrobus. The German botanist Karl Heinrich Koch 1873 held firmly in the new class assignment, but was referring to the currently valid taxon Glyptostrobus pensilis on the older basionym Thuja pensilis.

Another synonym for this species is Glyptostrobus lineatus auct ..

Swell

• Bulk, Weisgerber, Schuck, Long, vocal, Roloff: Encyclopedia of conifers. Nikol, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 3-933203-80-5, pp. 197-203.
• Christopher J. Earle: Description and taxonomy of the species at The Gymnosperm Database, 2008 (English ).