1. Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) Richard, Ann. Nat. Hist. 16: 298. 1810.
落羽杉 luo yu shan
Trees deciduous, to 50 m tall; pneumatophores present or absent around trunk; trunk swollen and buttressed at base, strongly tapered upward, to 2 m d.b.h.; bark brown, reddish brown, or gray, peeling off in long strips; crown conical, finally broadly conical, or relatively narrow and pyramidal; main branches spreading horizontally or ascending; lateral branchlets 2-ranked, axis green in 1st year, turning brown or brownish red in 1st winter. Leaves 2-ranked on annual branchlets or not, light green adaxially, yellowish green or grayish green abaxially, turning dark reddish brown in autumn, linear and flat or subulate, 4-15 × ca. 1 mm, midvein depressed adaxially, raised abaxially, stomatal lines 4-8, apex acute or sharply pointed. Pollen cones borne in terminal, crowded, short, dense racemes or panicles 5-12 cm, shortly pedunculate, ovoid. Seed cones brownish yellow or white powdery, not glaucous, globose, oblong-globose, or ovoid, (1.4-)2-4 × (1.3-)1.8-3 cm; cone scales shield-shaped, woody, ± conspicuously longitudinally grooved at apex. Seeds brown or reddish brown, irregularly triangular-pyramidal, 1.2-2.6 × 0.5-2.3 cm, sharply ridged. Pollination Mar-Apr, seed maturity (Jul-)Oct.
Used for afforestation on marshy soils, and cultivated as an ornamental. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to SE United States]
The wood is used in buildings, ship construction, furniture manufacture, etc.
