Cypress of Portugal

The cypress of Portugal , or cypress of Mexico , is a Arbre of the family of the Cupressacée S originating in Central America, cultivated like ornamental tree in the parks and large gardens.

The specific name, lusitanica (i.e. of Lusitanie, old name of Portugal), was given to him by the British botanist Philip Miller which described it in 1768. This species was cultivated in Great Britain since 1682, year when it was imported Portugal. This cypress was indeed imported for the first in Europe by Spanish monks who planted it with the monastery of Buçaco, close to Coimbra in Portugal about 1634. These trees thus had more than 130 years when Miller made the description of the species. It was believed a long time that they had summers introduced by Portuguese monks since Goa. They have summers found in 1839 by the German botanist Karl Theodor Hartweg in their original habitat in Mexico.

This tree is regarded as a threatened Espèce and appears in the red Liste of the UICN.

Vernacular names: cypress of Portugal, cypress of Goa, cypress of Mexico, cypress of Bentham (variety), cedar of Goa.

Distribution

This species is originating in the Mexico and the areas close to Central America (Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, El El Salvador).

It grows in mountain at altitudes ranging between 500 and 4000 meters.

Description

The cypress of Portugal is an always green tree which can reach 20 to 30 meters in height, even 40 meters. Its general form is conical-ovoid.

The foliage forms dense branches, of color variable dark green towards the yellowish green. The Sheet S, in the shape of scales from 2 to 5 mm length, recover round ramules (and not flattened).

The female cones are of globulous form to oblong, from 10 to 20 mm length. They consist of 4 to 10 scales, green at the beginning, turning to brown or gray brown to maturity approximately 25 months after pollination. The cones can open as of maturity to release seeds, or to remain closed during several years, opening only after the disappearance of the tree parent following a forest fire, thus making it possible seeds to colonize the ground discovered.

The male cones are smaller, 3 to 5 mm length, and release the seeds in February - March.

Classification

There exist two varieties, treated like distinct species by certain botanists:

Cupressus lusitanica VAr. lusitanica (syn. C. lindleyi ) - the cypress of Portugal itself. The foliage forms branches with three dimensions, with ramules arranged on two planes. One finds it in the areas of weaker pluviometry.
Cupressus lusitanica VAr. benthamii (syn. C. benthamii ) - the cypress of Bentham . The foliage forms flattened branches, with ramules all in only one plan. One finds it in the areas of stronger pluviometry.

Use and culture

The cypress of Portugal is a largely cultivated tree, as well like Tree ornamental as for the production of barks, in the hot and subtropical moderate areas of the whole world.

Its culture, and the naturalization which followed about it in certain areas of the South of the Asia involved a certain confusion with the species of indigenous Cupressus of these areas; often seedlings sold by the Seedbed S under the name of Asian species, such as Cupressus torulosa , prove to actually belong to this American species.

External bonds

Card of the '' Cupressus lusitanica '' on the site Conifers/org
the First description by Miller

References

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