Skewer

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Skewer
Spit fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata)

Spit fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata )

Systematics
Class : Coniferopsida
Order : Conifers (Coniferales)
Family : Cypress family (Cupressaceae)
Subfamily : Cunninghamioideae
Genre : Cunninghamia
Type : Skewer
Scientific name of the  subfamily
Cunninghamioideae
(Sieb. & Zucc.) Quinn
Scientific name of the  genus
Cunninghamia
R.Br. ex A.Rich.
Scientific name of the  species
Cunninghamia lanceolata
( Lamb. ) Hook.

The fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata ) is the only species of the genus Cunninghamia and also the only species of subfamily Cunninghamioideae in the family of the cypress family (Cupressaceae). It is native to South Asia, in China it is one of the economically most important tree species.

description

Vegetative characteristics

Habitus
Habitus
Underside of the branch, the white stomata and the spirally arranged leaf marks can be seen.

The spike grows as a straight, evergreen tree that reaches heights of 30 to 38 m and trunk diameters of 1 to 2.5 m. The dark green crown is initially pagoda-shaped, but later becomes conical. A distinction is made between densely branched and loosely branched crown types. The branches stand in whorls of five to six at an angle of about 80 ° from the trunk. The ends of the branches are drooping. Even free-standing trees are not branched to the ground.

root

The spit is a shallow root . Most of their root system is at a depth of 10 to 50 cm. The most intense root growth takes place at an age of 5 to 10 years.

bark
bark

The bark of the young twigs is green and hairless. Branches and trunks of young trees have a brownish and rough bark that flakes off in small pieces. The bark of the old trees is gray to dark brown or reddish brown, thick and fibrous. It comes off in irregular, aromatic smelling pieces, and the yellowish or reddish inner bark becomes visible.

Wood

Both heartwood and sapwood are light yellow to brown in color. They only differ from one another in terms of color intensity. The light and tough wood of the skewer fir has a uniform structure, straight grain and gives off a specific smell. Resin channels are missing. It is considered weatherproof.

Foliage

The needles, which are dark green on top, are about 2 to 6 cm long and 3 to 5 mm wide. On the top there are two narrow stomatal ligaments that are only indistinctly recognizable . The stomatal ligaments can still be clearly seen in young needles. The underside is light green and has two broad, whitish stomatal ligaments along the midrib. The needles are rough leathery and taper evenly from the base to a sharp and piercing point. The leaf margins are clearly serrated. The needles are arranged in a spiral around the main drive. They are closer to the side branches and, by rotating at the base, appear to be two-line. They change color in autumn due to rhodoxanthin .

Generative characteristics

The spit fir is monoecious ( monoecious ). The flowering time is in April.

The short-stemmed, elongated-cylindrical male cones are 0.5 to 1.5 cm long. They stand in groups of up to 40 cones on the tips of young branches.

The green female cones stand individually at the ends of the branches and point downwards. Often, throughgrown cones can be observed with a short leafy branch at the top of the cone. When ripe in October and November, the cones turn yellowish-brown, 2.5 to 5 cm long and 3 to 4 cm thick. The leathery cone scales are about 1.7 cm long and 1.5 cm wide and stalked. They end in a sharp point, the edges are unevenly serrated. Usually three ovules develop per cone scale. Each ovule stands on a distinct bulge. The flat, irregularly egg-shaped and dark brown seeds are 6 to 8 mm long and about 4 to 5 mm wide and have narrow wings. The thousand grain weight is between 7 and 8 g. The seedlings form two cotyledons ( cotyledons off). The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.

  • Generative characteristics

  • Illustration: branch with female cones

  • Illustration: Branch with male cones

  • Male cones

  • Female cones covered by leaves at the end of a branch during flowering

  • Female, streaked cone

Distribution and location

The distribution area extends from China , Vietnam , Laos to Cambodia . They were spread by humans in Japan and China early on , so their natural distribution is not precisely known. Their natural home was probably the Yangtze Valley and the mountains to the south.

The spruce thrives in the warm, humid subtropical climate. It comes at altitudes of up to 1,500 m above sea level. NN before. The annual precipitation is between 1,200 and 2,000 mm. Mixed forests are with oaks ( Quercus ), castanopsis ( Castanopsis ) Südeichen ( Lithocarpus ), Cinnamomum and Schima formed.

With a frost hardiness down to −17 ° C (Z7), it is only completely hardy in regions with mild winters.

Diseases and pests

There are no known biotic pests that threaten the survival. Fungi of the genera Rhizoctonia and Fusarium as well as the species Pestalotia shiraiana attack the leaves and shoot tips. Botryosphaeria cunninghamiae and Pestalotiopis apiculatus lead to shoot damage in old trees. The species Semanotus bifasciatus and Polychrosis cunninghamicola are named as harmful insects .

use

The wood of the spruce is an important construction timber in the subtropical regions of China. It is also used in bridge, ship and furniture construction. Coffins were made from wood in ancient times . The bark is used as fuel.

Systematics

The genus Cunninghamia was established in 1826 by Robert Brown in Achille Richard : Commentatio botanica de Conifereis et Cycadeis , 80, p. 149. It contains the only species Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. which was first described as Pinus lanceolata by Aylmer Bourke Lambert in 1803. The scientific generic name honors the British doctor and plant collector James Cunningham († 1709), who discovered this plant species in China.

There are two varieties:

  • Chinese fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata var. Lanceolata ( Syn. : Pinus lanceolata Lamb. , Belis jaculifolia Salisbury , Belis lanceolata (Lamb) Hoffmannsegg. , Cunninghamia chinensis de Vos , Cunninghamia lanceolata var. Corticosa Z.Y.Que & JXLi , Cunninghamia sinensis R.Br . ex Richard & A.Richard , Cunninghamia unicanaliculata D.Y.Wang & HLLiu , Cunninghamia unicanaliculata var. pyramidalis D.Y.Wang & HLLiu , Raxopitys cunninghamii J. Nelson )) It originally only occurs in China.
  • Cunninghamia lanceolata var. Konishii (Hayata) Fujita (Syn .: Cunninghamia konishii Hayata , Cunninghamia kawakamii Hayata ). This variety, which occurs in Taiwan, is also considered by some authors to be a species in its own right: Taiwanese spruce ( Cunninghamia konishii Hayata ). It occurs in China, Taiwan, Laos and Vietnam.

There are three cultivars in China :

  • Cunninghamia lanceolata cv. lanceolata has quite rigid, yellow-green needles. The wood is reddish.
  • Cunninghamia lanceolata cv. glauca has relatively long and soft, gray to blue-green needles. It grows much faster than cv. lanceolata .
  • Cunninghamia lanceolata cv. mollifolia has thin and soft needles without a sharp apex . It occurs in the provinces of Yunnan and Hunan .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schütt et al .: Lexicon of Conifers , p. 142
  2. ↑ Armin Jagel, Veit Martin Dörken: The cones of the cypress family (Cupressaceae) - Part 1: Subfamilies Cunninghamioideae, Athrotaxoideae, Taiwanioideae, Sequoioideae, Taxodioideae. Communications from the German Dendrological Society, Vol. 100, 2015, pp. 161–176.
  3. ↑ Profile at baumkunde.de.
  4. ↑ Christopher J. Earle: Cunninghamia lanceolata , 2009 at The Gymnosperm Database .
  5. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
  6. ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Cunninghamia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved March 22, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Skewer Fir ( Cunninghamia lanceolata )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files