Cypress bald person

Description

The cypress bald person is a large Arbre, being able to reach 30 with 45 meters in height, and broad, with a trunk of a diameter reaching up to 3 meters.

The foliage light, gracious and flexible is made of Feuille S laid out in spirals on the branches but twisted with their base, which makes them appear laid out in two flattened rows. They measure of 1 with 2 cm length on 1 with 2 mm broad and are null and void, falling at the bad season. This last character, unusual at the majority of the others Cupressacée S, is at the origin of the name of cypress “bald person”.

The green cones, turning to the brown gray with maturity, are of globulous form and measure of 2 with 3,5 cm of diameter. They disaggregate with maturity, releasing large Graine S.

The seeds are largest (of 5 with 10 mm length) met in the family of Cupressacées, and are dispersed in water.

The cypresses bald people growing in the marshes are characterized by the growth from particular air roots, the Pneumatophore S. These bodies lignified, which can reach 1,7 m in height, emergent ground or water all around the trunk. Their functions seem to be double, on the one hand to ensure the supply of Oxygène the plant, on the other hand to ensure a better stabilization and a better anchoring of the tree in the ground.

Distribution and habitat

The cypress bald person is originating in the South-eastern quarter of the the United States, since the Baie Delaware until the Florida on the Atlantique coast, and until the Texas towards the west. This tree also goes up towards the interior of the grounds in the valleys of the the Mississippi and the Ohio until in the south of the Illinois and the Indiana.

One meets this tree mainly in the wetlands subjected to periodic immersions by muddy water of the rivers.

Their natural limit towards north is related to their lack of rusticity, it is especially the regeneration which is opposed by the Gel which is harmful with the one year old starts-up.

The species also met in Europe 8 million years ago, as a recent and exceptional discovery (July 2007) of trees indicates it dating from the Miocène whose wood not fossilized was preserved in the brown-coal mine of Bükkábrány in Hungary.

Paleobotany

Sixteen Taxodium distichum perfectly preserved since the Miocène, more precisely of the Tortonien - one time when the continent of Europe was partially submerged by water - were found in 2007 at the bottom of an immense deep crack of 60 meters located in the brown-coal mine at open sky of Bukkabrany at 160 km at the North-East of Budapest, the capital of the Hungary. The interest of this discovery lies in the fact that these trees, old man of eight million years neither are carbonized, nor fossilized, but kept all their timber structure.

These sixteen trees located in a small perimeter of less than 100 m ², have a height from 4 to 6 meters for a diameter from 1,5 to 3 meters. Their size was to approach the 30 to 40 meters. The trunks were preserved in their original form and their matter thanks to a conservation exceptional, if not miraculous, which had with the fact that they were quickly covered by a thick gray layer of sand, itself surmounted by a fine yellow layer of sand. The gray layer of sand six meters thickness is the consequence of exceptional and sudden sandstorm. the conservation is due to the absence of Bactérie S in this gray layer of sand; original wood did not fossilize.

These trees constitute, for the scientists, an important mine of information on the flora of the Miocène and on the origins of the Pannonia which at the time was immense stretch of water, called Lac Pannon, on the shores of which the Taxodium distichum thrived. Gâce with the examinations of Dendrochronologie - study of the dating of the climate changes by the study of the rings of the trees - it is possible to know in detail the climate of a small period of miocene being spread out between 1.000 and 1.500 years.

Several million euros was resolved by the Hungarian ministry of the Environment to ensure the safeguarding of the sixteen extraordinarily preserved trees. They should quickly be preserved in an aquarium reproducing the wet conditions of their conservation, inside Ipolytarnoc, the national park of Bükk. Subjected to the air and the sun, the trees are damaged quickly by losing their cellulose which is used as adhesive with the membranes of the cells of their wood.

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