Mexican cypress
| Mexican cypress | ||||||||||||
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Mexican cypress ( Cupressus lusitanica ) |
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| Cupressus lusitanica | ||||||||||||
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The Mexican cypress ( Cupressus lusitanica ) is a plant from the family of the cypress family (Cupressaceae). It is native to Central America.
description
The Mexican cypress grows as an evergreen tree that can reach heights of 25 to 30 meters. The thick, longitudinally cracked bark has a reddish brown color. The crown of young trees is pyramidal in shape and diverges with age. The branches of old trees are hanging. The shoots, which are square in cross-section, are also hanging.
The scale-like leaves are egg-shaped and blue-green in color. Usually they have a long and pointed tip.
The cones are spherical with a diameter of around 1.2 centimeters. At first they are blue-green in color, but when they are ripe they turn dark brown. Each cone contains around 75 seeds and consists of six to eight scales. The winged seeds are brown in color and around 4 millimeters long. There are resin glands on each seed .
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.
Distribution and location
The natural range of the Mexican cypress is in Central America. It stretches from Mexico in the north to Honduras and El Salvador in the south. In Mexico you can find them almost in the entire national territory, only occurrences in Colima , Nayarit , Sonora , Tlaxcala , Yucatán and Zacatecas are questionable. It was also introduced to Costa Rica and Nicaragua .
The Mexican cypress thrives at altitudes of 450 to 3990 meters. It grows mainly on rocky mountain slopes and near ravines on carbonate and volcanic soils. It usually forms pure stands, but it also comes in mixed stands, mainly with firs ( Abies ), the Mexican Weymouth pine ( Pinus ayacahuite ), Pinus hartwegii , Pinus maximinoi , the Montezuma pine ( Pinus montezumae ), Pinus patula , Pinus pseudostrobus , of Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ) and with juniper ( Juniperus ), oak ( Quercus ), alder ( Alnus ), Clethra ( Clethra ) and Persea TYPES before.
use
The Mexican cypress is often planted in parks as an ornamental wood and as a living fence. In Africa in particular, it is also grown for forestry use. In Costa Rica the species is often used as a Christmas tree.
Systematics
The first description as Cupressus lusitanica was in 1768 by Philip Miller in The Gardeners Dictionary:… eighth edition no. 3 . Sometimes the synonyms Callitropsis lusitanica (Mill.) DP Little , Neocupressus lusitanica (Mill.) De Laub. or Hesperocyparis lusitanica (Mill.) Bartel used for the species.
The species is divided into up to two varieties depending on the author . These are sometimes also viewed as subspecies or even species:
- Cupressus lusitanica var. Benthamii (Endl.) Carrière . This variety is native to southern Mexico in the states of Hidalgo to Chiapas. Cupressus benthamii Endl is a synonym . or Hesperocyparis benthamii (Endl.) Bartel .
- Cupressus lusitanica var. Lusitanica is the nominate form. A synonym is Hesperocyparis lusitanica (Mill.) Bartel . It occurs from Mexico to Nicaragua .
Hazard and protection
The Mexican cypress is listed on the IUCN Red List as “not endangered”. The benthamii variety is listed as "low risk". In both entries, however, it is pointed out that a new check of the hazard is necessary.
swell
- Christopher J. Earle: Cupressus lusitanica. In: The Gymnosperm Database. www.conifers.org, May 22, 2011, accessed January 3, 2012 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Christopher J. Earle: Cupressus lusitanica. In: The Gymnosperm Database. www.conifers.org, May 22, 2011, accessed January 3, 2012 .
- ↑ a b c Cupressus lusitanica at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed August 9, 2016.
- ↑ a b c Cupressus lusitanica. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network. www.ars-grin.gov, accessed on January 3, 2012 (English).
- ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Cupressus. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved March 25, 2019.
- ↑ Cupressus lusitanica in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Conifer Specialist Group, 1998. Retrieved on January 2 2012th
- ↑ Cupressus lusitanica var. Benthamii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Conifer Specialist Group, 1998. Accessed 3 January 2012.
