Torreya

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Torreya

Torreya is a genus of conifers

Pinophyta

The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxon within the Plant. They are Conifer cone-bearing seed plants with Vascular plant tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being trees with just a few being shrubs....
comprising five or six species, treated in either the Cephalotaxaceae

Cephalotaxaceae

The family Cephalotaxaceae is a small grouping of conifers, with three genera and about 20 species, closely allied to the Taxaceae, and included in that family by some botanists....
, or in the Taxaceae

Taxaceae

The family Taxaceae, commonly called the yew family, includes three genera and about 7 to 12 species of coniferous plants, or in other interpretations , six genera and about 30 species....
when that family is considered in a broad sense. Four are native to eastern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, the other two native to 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....
. They are small to medium sized 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....
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 5-20 m, rarely 25 m, tall.

The 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....
are spirally arranged on the shoots, but twisted at the base to lie in two flat ranks; they are linear, 2-8 cm long and 3-4 mm broad, hard in texture, with a sharp spine tip.

Torreya can be either monoecious

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
or dioecious

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
; when monoecious, the male and female 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 often on different branches.

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Encyclopedia

Torreya is a genus of conifers

Pinophyta

Cephalotaxaceae

Taxaceae

Asia

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....
. They are small to medium sized 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....
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 5-20 m, rarely 25 m, tall.

The leaves

Leaf

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
or dioecious

Plant sexuality

Conifer cone

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
) cones are 5-8 mm long, grouped in lines along the underside of a shoot. The female (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....
) cones are single or grouped 2-8 together on a short stem; minute at first, they mature in about 18 months to a drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovary....
-like structure with the single large nut

Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
-like seed 2-4 cm long surrounded by a fleshy covering, green to purple at full maturity. In some species, notably the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese Torreya nucifera
Torreya nucifera

Torreya nucifera is a slow-growing Pinophyta tree native to southern Japan and to South Korea's Jeju Island. It is also called or Japanese Nutmeg-yew....
(Kaya), the seed is edible. Natural dispersal is thought to be aided by squirrel

Squirrel

File:Eichh?rnchen D?sseldorf Hofgarten edit.jpgA squirrel is one of many small or medium-sized rodents in the family Sciuridae. In the English language-speaking world, squirrel commonly refers to members of this family's genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus, which are tree squirrels with large bushy tails, indigenous to Asia, the America...
s which bury the seeds for a winter food source; any seeds left uneaten are then able to germinate.

The genus is named after the American botanist John Torrey

John Torrey

John Torrey was an United States botany.Torrey was born in New York. When he was 15 or 16 years of age his father received a prison appointment at Greenwich, and there he made the acquaintance of Amos Eaton, a pioneer of natural history studies in America....
.

Torreya californica
Torreya californica

Torreya californica is species of Pinophyta endemic to California, occurring in the Pacific Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada ....
(California Torreya) is endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a particular geographic location, such as a specific island, Habitat type, nation, or other defined zone....
in California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
. It is the largest species, reaching 25 m tall.

Torreya taxifolia
Torreya taxifolia

Torreya taxifolia is a rare and endangered species found in the Southeastern United States at the state border region of northern Florida, and southwestern Georgia ....
(Florida Torreya) has a restricted habitat within Torreya State Park

Torreya State Park

Torreya State Park is a 12,000 acre Florida State Parks, United States National Natural Landmark and National Register of Historic Places thirteen miles north of Bristol, Florida....
, along the east bank of the Apalachicola River

Apalachicola River

The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 112 mi long in the U.S. state Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin for short, drains an area of approximately 19,500 sq mi into the Gulf of Mexico....
in the Florida Panhandle

Florida Panhandle

The Florida Panhandle is the region of the state of Florida which includes the westernmost 16 List of counties in Florida in the state. It is a narrow strip lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south....
and immediate adjacent southernmost Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
. It is an endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters....
, which has suffered a major decline in numbers due to fungal disease (possibly Phytophthora
Phytophthora

Phytophthora is a genus of plant-damaging Protists of the Water mould . Anton de Bary described it for the first time in 1875....
). Post-glacial global warming

Global warming

Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
has also been implicated in this species' decline; however, it is sold by at least one Florida nursery in Hudson

Hudson, Florida

Hudson is a census-designated place located at the westernmost end of Pasco County, Florida, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, Hudson's population was 12,765....
, well south of its native range. It is best adapted to the cooler, moister climate found in this area during the last ice age

Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
but, due to poor dispersal abilities, has not been able to colonise further north in the post-glacial warming. Cultivated specimens are however growing very well in cooler climates in the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains or , often called the Appalachians, are a vast mountain range in eastern North America. Definitions vary on the precise boundaries of the Appalachians....
, in northern Georgia and at the Biltmore Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, North Carolina, United States. The population was 68,889 at the United States Census, 2000....
where it is regenerating naturally. It has been proposed that the best course to save the species from extinction is to plant groves of it in these areas. Called "assisted migration

Assisted migration

Assisted migration is the practice of deliberately repopulating members of a species from their present habitat to a new region with the intent of establishing a permanent presence there, generally in response to the degradation of the natural habitat due to human action....
", intentional movement of a plant outside of its historical range (though perhaps consistent with its deep-time range) became an important issue in the conservation community in 2007 and 2008, with Torreya taxifolia
Torreya taxifolia

Torreya taxifolia is a rare and endangered species found in the Southeastern United States at the state border region of northern Florida, and southwestern Georgia ....
(Florida Torreya) being the featured plant (see Further Reading below).

Torreya

Further reading