Chamaecyparis taiwanensis (Taiwan Cypress; ) is a species of cypress

Chamaecyparis

Chamaecyparis is a genus of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to eastern Asia and western and eastern North America. In the nursery trade it is often incorrectly known as "false cypress" for lack of other common name, so as to distinguish it from other similar genera bearing...

, native to the mountains of Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, where it grows at altitudes of 1300–2800 m.

Description

It is a slow-growing coniferous

Pinophyta

The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being...

 tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 growing to 40 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m in diameter. The bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

 is red-brown, vertically fissured and with a stringy texture. The foliage is arranged in flat sprays; adult leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are scale-like, 0.8–1.5 mm long, with acute tips (unlike the blunt tips of the leaves of the closely related Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, 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 Chamaecyparis obtusa

Chamaecyparis obtusa

Chamaecyparis obtusa is a species of cypress native to central Japan.It is a slow-growing tree which grows to 35 m tall with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter. The bark is dark red-brown...

(Hinoki Cypress), green above, green below with a white stoma

Stoma

In botany, a stoma is a pore, found in the leaf and stem epidermis that is used forgas exchange. The pore is bordered by a pair of specialized parenchyma cells known as guard cells that are responsible for regulating the size of the opening...

tal band at the base of each scale-leaf; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs on the shoots. The juvenile

Juvenile (organism)

A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...

 leaves, found on young seedlings, are needle-like, 4–8 mm long. The cones

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

 are globose, smaller than those of C. obtusa, 7–9 mm diameter, with 6–10 scales arranged in opposite pairs, maturing in autumn about 7–8 months after pollination.

Taxonomy

It is most commonly treated as a variety of Chamaecyparis obtusa in European and American texts, but more often accepted as a distinct species by Taiwanese botanists. The two taxa differ in ecological requirements, with C. obtusa growing primarily on drier ridgetop sites, while C. taiwanensis occurs on moist soils and with higher rainfall and air humidity.

Related species

A related cypress also found on Taiwan, Chamaecyparis formosensis (Formosan Cypress), differs in leaves which are green below as well as above without a conspicuous white stomatal band, and longer, slenderer ovoid cone

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

s 6–10 mm long with 10–16 scale

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

s.