Swamp cypress facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Swamp cypress |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Actinostrobus
|
| Species: |
pyramidalis
|
| Synonyms | |
|
|
Actinostrobus pyramidalis, often called the swamp cypress, Swan River cypress, or King George's cypress pine, is a type of conifer tree. It belongs to the Cupressaceae family, which is the cypress family. This special tree is found only in the southwestern part of Western Australia. This means it is endemic to that area.
Contents
What Does It Look Like?
The swamp cypress can be a shrub (a small bush) or a small tree. It can grow up to eight metres (about 26 feet) tall. Its leaves are always green, meaning they are evergreen. They look like small scales, except when the plant is very young. On new seedlings, the leaves are more like needles. The leaves grow in a neat pattern, arranged in six rows along the branches. They are in groups of three that alternate.
Cones and Seeds
Like all conifers, the swamp cypress has cones. The male cones are quite small, only about 3 to 6 millimetres long. You can find them at the very tips of the branches. The female cones start out small too. But over 18 to 20 months, they grow larger, becoming 1 to 2 centimetres long. They have a rounded top.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
The cones of the swamp cypress are very clever! They usually stay closed on the tree for many years. They only open up and release their seeds when the branch, or even the whole tree, dies.
How Bushfires Help
Bushfires are a big part of the life cycle for the swamp cypress. While a bushfire will kill the adult cypress trees, it also makes a huge number of seeds open all at once. This leads to many new plants growing very quickly. For example, on an island called Jeegarnyeejip Island, one tree was killed by fire. The next winter, there were 800 new seedlings for every square metre near where the old tree was! Even ten metres away, there were about 150 seedlings per square metre. This shows how important fire is for this tree to grow new generations.
History and Name Changes
The swamp cypress was first found and collected in Perth in September 1841. A person named Johann August Ludwig Preiss collected it. Later, in 1845, Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel officially described it and gave it the name Actinostrobus pyramidalis.
Scientists sometimes study plants very closely to understand how they are related. In 2010, a study looked at the groups of plants called Actinostrobus and Callitris. Based on many features of the plants, the study found that all three types of Actinostrobus trees actually fit within the Callitris group. Because of this, Actinostrobus pyramidalis was renamed to Callitris pyramidalis.
