Taxodium

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Taxodium

Taxodium is a genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
of one to three species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
(depending on taxonomic

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae

Cupressaceae

The Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera with about 130-140 species....
. Within the family, Taxodium is most closely related to Chinese Swamp Cypress

Glyptostrobus

Glyptostrobus pensilis, also known as Chinese Swamp Cypress, is the sole living species in the genus Glyptostrobus. It is native to subtropical southeastern China, from Fujian west to southeast Yunnan, and also very locally in southern Vietnam....
(Glyptostrobus pensilis) and Sugi

Cryptomeria

Cryptomeria is a genus of Pinophyta in the Cupressaceae family Cupressaceae formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae; it includes only one species, Cryptomeria japonica ....
(Cryptomeria japonica).

Species of Taxodium occur in the southern part of the North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n continent and are deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe....
in the north and semi-evergreen to evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
in the south.

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Encyclopedia

Taxodium is a genus

Genus

Species

Taxonomy

Cupressaceae

Glyptostrobus

Cryptomeria

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n continent and are deciduous

Deciduous

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
in the south. They are large tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s, reaching 100-150 feet tall (30-45 m) and 2-3 m (exceptionally 11 m) trunk diameter. The needle-like leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
, 0.5-2 cm 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 cones

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the plant sexuality structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds....
are globose, 2-3.5 cm diameter, with 10-25 scales, each scale with 1-2 seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s; they are mature in 7-9 months after pollination, when they disintegrate to release the seeds. The male (pollen) cones are produced in pendulous racemes, and shed their pollen in early spring.

Species

The three taxa

Taxon

A taxon or taxonomic unit is a name designating an organism or a group of organisms. In biological nomenclature according to Carl Linnaeus, a taxon is assigned a taxonomic rank and can be placed at a particular level in a systematic hierarchy reflecting evolutionary relationships....
of Taxodium are treated here as distinct species, though some botanists treat them in just one or two species, with the others considered as varieties of the first described. The three are distinct in ecology

Ecology

Ecology is the science study of the distribution and Abundance of life and the interactions between organisms and their nature environment ....
, growing in different environments, but hybridise where they meet.

Taxodium distichum
Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum is a species of Pinophyta native to the southeastern United States....
- Bald Cypress

The most familiar species in the genus is the Bald Cypress, native to much of the southeastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, from Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the East Coast of the United States in the Mid-Atlantic States region of the United States. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom Cape Henlopen was originally named....
to Texas

Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
, especially Louisiana

Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
and inland up the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
to southern Indiana

Indiana

The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America....
. It occurs mainly along rivers with silt-rich flood deposits.

Taxodium ascendens
Taxodium ascendens

Taxodium ascendens, also known as Pond Cypress, is a species of Taxodium native to the Southeastern United States United States, from coastal North Carolina to southeastern Louisiana....
- Pond Cypress

The Pond Cypress occurs within the range of Bald Cypress, but only on the southeastern coastal plain from North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
to Louisiana

Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
. It occurs in still blackwater rivers, ponds and swamps without silt-rich flood deposits.

Taxodium mucronatum
Taxodium mucronatum

Taxodium mucronatum, also known as Montezuma Cypress, Sabino, Ahuehuete , is a species of Taxodium native to much of Mexico , and also southernmost Texas, USA ....
- Montezuma Cypress

The Montezuma Cypress occurs from the Rio Grande

Rio Grande

For the railroad often known as the Rio Grande, see Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.The Rio Grande River in the United States, known as the R?o Bravo in Mexico, is a river, long, is the fourth longest river system in the United States and serves as a natural boundary along the border between the U.S....
south to the highlands of southern Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, and differs from the other two species in being substantially evergreen. A specimen at Santa Maria del Tule in Oaxaca, the Árbol del Tule

Árbol del Tule

El ?rbol del Tule is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa Mar?a del Tule in the States of Mexico of Oaxaca, approximately 9 km east of the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca on the road to Mitla....
, is 43 m tall and has the greatest trunk thickness of any living tree, 11.42 m in diameter. It is a riparian tree, occurring on the banks of streams and rivers, not in swamps like the Bald and Pond cypress.

Uses

The trees are especially prized for their wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
, of which the heartwood is extremely rot and termite resistant, with the notable exception of the host-specific Pecky Rot fungus (Stereum taxodii), which causes some damaged trees to become hollow and thus useless for timber. "A biochemical called cypressene is believed to act as a natural preservative in the heartwood, but it takes many decades to build up in the wood, making lumber cut from old-growth trees much more resistant to decay than lumber from younger trees". - Sternberg, G., Native Trees for North American Landscapes pp. 476. Bald Cypress wood was much used in former days in southeastern US for shingles. The shredded bark

BARK

BARK was an early Electromechanics. BARK was built using standard phone relays, implementing a 32-bit binary machine and could perform addition in 150 ms and multiplication in 250 ms....
of these trees is used as a mulch

Mulch

In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil, primarily to modify the effects of the local climate. A wide variety of nature and Synthetic fiber materials are used....
, although the current harvest rate for this product is not sustainable and is causing substantial environment

Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
al damage especially in the south where cutting boundaries are not being followed.

Evolution

In earth's history Taxodium was widespread. It is known since the Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
and can be found as fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
e.g. in layers from Tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a a term for a Geologic time scale#Terminology 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Neogene#Controversy....
times.

External links and references

National Audubon Society, undated. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. A Companion Field Guide. Artype Inc., Ft. Myers. 25 p.
Sternberg, G.
Guy Sternberg

Guy Sternberg is the owner and operator of Starhill Forest Arboretum in Petersburg, Illinois. He is an arborist, author of books on quercus and is a founding member of the International Oak Society, tree consultant, and lecturer....
, (2004) Native Trees for North American Landscapes pp. 476. Timber Press, Inc.