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.[Nguyễn Đúc Tố Luu, Philip Ian Thomas, 2004. Conifers of Vietnam. 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 .]
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
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 .
[LePage, B.A. 2007. The Taxonomy and Biogeographic History of Glyptostrobus. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 48(2): 359-426. ]
Description
G. pensilis is a medium-sized to large
tree, reaching tall and with a trunk diameter of up to , possibly more. The
leaf are
deciduous, spirally arranged but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, long and broad, but long and scale-like on shoots in the upper crown. The
conifer cone are green maturing yellow-brown,
pear-shaped, long and diameter, broadest near the apex. They open when mature to release the small, long, winged
.
Habitat
It typically grows in
river banks,
and
, growing in water up to deep. Like the related genus
Taxodium, it produces '
' when growing in water, thought to help transport
oxygen to the
.
Conservation
The species is nearly
Extinction 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 paddy field where its roots help to stabilise the banks by reducing
soil erosion.
External links
