Thuja sutchuenensis

The Sichuan arborvitae (Thuja sutchuenensis ) is a plant that belongs to the family of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ) and Sichuan (China ) comes.

Description

The Sichuan - life tree is reached an evergreen shrub or tree, the growth heights of up to 20 meters. His bark is orange-brown, later gray-brown and thin. The branches are dense. The scale-like leaves are 1.5 to 4 millimeters in some main branches to 7 millimeters long and ends in a blunt tip.

The Sichuan - life tree is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ), male and female cones are therefore located at a plant. The male cones are yellow and about 2.5 mm in size with six to eight Mikrosporophyllen. Each microsporophyll rarely has two, usually three pollen sacs. Female pins are oval, have a length of 5 to 7 mm and a diameter of 3 to 4 millimeters. The seed is about 3.5 millimeters in size with two 0.5 -millimeter-wide wings.

Distribution and history

The Sichuan tree of life is only in a small area in the northeast of Sichuan home (this is Chengkou Xian southeastern Daba Shan area ). The discovery and first description of the Western world was the missionary PG Farges 1892-1900. Thereafter, it was believed for a long time that the Sichuan tree of life was extinct. He was in his home region rediscovered by Chinese botanists, more precisely in " Daba Mountain Nature Reserve " in Chongqing in 1999.

Origin of the name

The species name sutchuenensis was from the French word Sutchuen ( Sichuan ) and the suffix - ensis formed ( for "coming out ").

Swell

• Christopher J. Earle: Thuja sutchuenensis. In: The Gymnosperm Database. December 12, 2010, accessed 28 October 2011 (English).