Taxodium Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607 is a genus of one to three species (depending on taxonomic opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The name is derived from the Latin word taxus, meaning "Taxus", and the Greek language word εἶδος ( eidos), meaning "similar to." Within the family, Taxodium is most closely related to Glyptostrobus ( Glyptostrobus pensilis) and Cryptomeria ( Cryptomeria japonica).
Species of Taxodium occur in the southern part of the continent and are deciduous in the north and semi-evergreen to evergreen in the south. They are large , reaching tall and (exceptionally ) trunk diameter. The needle-like leaf, long, are borne spirally on the shoots, twisted at the base so as to appear in two flat rows on either side of the shoot. The conifer cone are globose, diameter, with 10–25 scales, each scale with one or two ; they are mature in 7–9 months after pollination, when they disintegrate to release the seeds. The male (pollen) cones are produced in pendulous , and shed their pollen in early spring. Taxodium species grow cypress knees, when growing in or beside water. The function of these knees is currently a subject of ongoing research.
Occurs within the range of bald cypress, but only on the southeastern coastal plain from North Carolina to Louisiana. It occurs in still blackwater rivers, ponds and swamps without silt-rich flood deposits. |
Native to much of the southeastern United States, from Delaware to Texas, especially Louisiana and inland up the Mississippi River to southern Indiana. It occurs mainly along rivers with silt-rich flood deposits. |
Occurs from the Lower Rio Grande Valley south to the highlands of Guatemala, and differs from the other two species in being substantially evergreen. A specimen in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, the Árbol del Tule, is tall and has the greatest trunk thickness of all trees, in diameter. It is a Riparian zone tree, occurring on the banks of streams and rivers, not in swamps like the bald and pond cypresses. |
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