Pollen cones ovoid, 2.5–5.5 × 2–3.8 mm bracts triangular-ovate or obovate, c. 4 × 3 mm, lowest minutely ciliate distally, others glabrous. Seed cones terminal on leafy shoots 2–4(–8) cm long, purplish black when young, oblong-ellipsoid to 9 × 5.5 mm at pollination subglobose to 1.4–2.5 × 1.6–2.3 cm when mature with 8–12 opposite scale pairs. Pollination Feb-Mar, before leaves, seed maturity Oct-Nov (China) seed cones maturing within one year. ( Fu, Yu & Mill 1999 Debreczy & Rácz 2011 Farjon 2005). Habitat A riparian species occuring on moist valley floors, or in deep ravines and other areas with seepage and hence constant moisture, 750–1500 m asl. The majority of the natural habitat has been heavily modified in the last c. 70 years, especially on valley-floor sites, but fragments of native forest suggest that previously the wider forest featured multiple species of Quercus, Lindera, Prunus, Acer and Ilex, among others. Associates that continue to grow with Metasequoia in its moist microhabitats include species that can tolerate periodic flooding such as Liquidambar acalycina, Nyssa sinensis, and Pterocarya hupehensis. Taxonomic note Two synonyms have been treated here: M. Wu described from Chinese material in 1984 M. neopangea Silba described from material cultivated in the USA in 2001. In 2010 Silba resvied both names to subspecies rank. Neither name is accepted at any rank by major treatments, including the Flora of China, Plants of the World Online, Farjon 2017, etc. As with any species, seed-raised plants growing across such a vast range of climatic zones as M. Glyptostroboides will show variation, but in a case such as this it is neither helpful nor prudent to attempt to classify this variation too finely, and we follow others in consigning these names to synonymy. Metasequoia belongs to an elite group of plants – mostly quite unrelated – whose stories are the apogee of botanical legend.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |