The Bald Cypress Family
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The Bald Cypress Family
The Cupressaceae, known as the bald cypress family, is a conifer family with cosmopolitan distribution. Today the Cupressaceae is the most widely dispersed of the gymnosperm family in the world. The main reason the Cupressaceae family is quite famous in the botanical world is because it includes members of species that include the largest, tallest, and stoutest individual trees in the world. Additionally, they also are awarded second place following the Pinaceae family in the category of longest lived plant family in the world. The first place winner is actually Pinus longaeva, a close cousin to the bald cypress family, which contains core samples dating back approximately 4,700 years ago. Fitzroya cupressoides is the second place winner representing the Cupressaceae family with its oldest specimen from Chile dating back approximately 3,622 years.
A few other characteristics that make the bald cypress family popular, particularly with construction workers, architects, contractors, and even morticians, is the heartwood of the Cupressaceae trees that are resistant to rotting, fungi, and termite damage. This would make it the lumber of choice when it comes to wood that needs to be in direct contact with soil and wood that requires a long durable lifespan. This unique wood also has a very sweet traditional smell which is considered when it comes to projects where the scent of wood can be admired and appreciated. A few good examples of this would be fences, houses, frames, coffins, and lawn furniture.
The Cupressaceae family is comprised of mostly monoecious, and rarely ever, dioecious trees and shrubs. Monoecious is a botanical categorization which derives from the Greek language meaning “one household” identifing an individual plant to possess both male and female reproductive organs. These plants, in size, can range from 3 to 367 ft, and in color, can scale from an orange to reddish brown shade. Younger developing plants produce coats of thin needle-like foliage and in most genera develop into small and scale-like leaves. These leaves are usually not shed individually but in bundles, smaller branches are cast off when the supporting bark begins to flake. Not all species in this family are deciduous, but how often this occurs is identifiable by genera. All of the plant life in this family bear cones to enclose and protect their seeds and exist in a variety of shapes and sizes: some woody, various leathery, and exclusively to the Juniperus genera, cones can be produced fleshy and berry-like.
The bald cypress family is comprised of seven subfamilies totaling about 130 – 140 species. The Cupressaceae is an exceptionally old family dating back to the Jurassic era, one of the three periods of the Mesozoic Era, dating back 200 – 146 million years ago. At that moment the temperature was believed to be of a tropical greenhouse condition accommodating the cold blooded dinosaurs that, at the time, roamed the Earth. The family Cupressaceae is divided into seven subfamilies: Cunninghamioideae, Athrotaxidoideae, Taiwanioideae, Sequoioideae, Taxodioideae, Callitroideae, and Cupressoideae. These subfamilies are divided into 30 different genera: Cunninghamia, Athrotaxis, Taiwania, Sequoia, Sequoiadendron, Metasequoi, Taxodium, Glyptostrobus, Cryptomeri, Callitris, Actinostrobus, Neocallitropsis, Widdringtonia, Diselma, Fitzroya, Austrocedrus, Libocedrus, Pilgerodendron, Papuacedrus, Thuja, Thujopsis, Chamaecyparis, Fokienia, Calocedrus, Tetraclinis, Microbiota, Platycladus, Callitropsis, Cupressus, and Juniperus.
Cosmopolitan distribution is a biological term describing the geological distribution of these trees to be widespread throughout the entire world. Today the Cupressaceae is the most widely dispersed of the gymnosperm family thriving in all types of diverse and inhospitable habitats only excluding the frigid continent of Antarctica. Ultimately, most of the genetic diversity is located in the southern hemisphere in accordance with the theory of vast biological diversity in tropical conditions. One example of an inhospitable environment the Cupressaceae family thrives in would be the Juniperus indica, which has been found reproducing in Tibet at an altitude of 5200m, the highest reported altitude for any woody plantThe Sequoioideae subfamily is another remarkable subfamily because of its size. Not a size implied by a large number of species within the genera but the physical size of a single plant measured by total volume. This subfamily includes the largest trees known, predominantly the Sequoiadendron giganteum, or more commonly known as, “The Giant Sequoia.” This species is officially known as the world largest tree towering at an average height of 230 – 280 ft. and an average width of 16-23 ft. Its reddish-brown trunk is buttressed at the base and respectively narrows above. Its awl-shaped leaves are evergreen and spirally arranged around its branches. A giant sequoia usually casts off branches 20-50 m from the ground when grown in a crowded environment but retains these limbs if granted with enough space. A mature giant sequoia can have an estimate of over 11,000 cones at a time. These seed cones are 4-7 cm long, has 30 -50 scales, an average of 230 seeds per cone, and can stay closed for up to 20 years typically waiting for fire or extremely hot weather to shed its scales. These seeds in their winged vessel can travel up to 600 ft. away from the parent conifer. Sequoiadendron giganteums favorable environment is a humid climate consisting of dry summers and snowy winters in western Sierra Nevada and California preferring an altitude ranging from 4,600 – 7000 ft. Rapid reproduction is typically not necessary for this species to exist because these trees can literally live and continue to produce cones for thousands of years. The oldest known Giant Sequoia is approximately 3,200 years old according to its ring count. Reproduction however, regardless of the massive amounts of cones and seeds produced, is difficult for this enormous tree. Young seedlings perform quite poorly against the competition of smaller, more adapted, and faster developing vegetation. They require periodical wildfires to clear out the competition or else young seedlings will be overcrowded and not germinate. These fires also open up dormant sealed cones along the floor which is in my opinion an exceptionally clever natural adaptation. This species is undergoing a steady decline in density ever since the European settlement in the United States. Another reason of decline in density of the Giant sequoias are the Douglas squirrels that inhabit these colossal trees. They primarily feed off of the female cones by breaking open the scales and eating the seeds inside causing the cones to prematurely open vastly reducing the chance of successful reproduction.