AMARYLLIS FLOWERS PICTURES

Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA.... across the entire campus are innumerable rare and specimen plants, flowers, and trees !


"Taxodium (pronounced /t?k?so?di?m/)[2] is a genus of one to three species (depending on taxonomic opinion) of extremely flood-tolerant conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The name is derived from the Latin word taxus, meaning "yew," and the Greek word ????? (eidos), meaning "similar to."[3] Within the family, Taxodium is most closely related to Chinese Swamp Cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis) and Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica).


Species of Taxodium occur in the southern part of the North American continent and are deciduous in the north and semi-evergreen to evergreen in the south. They are large trees, reaching 100–150 ft (30–46 m) tall and 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) (exceptionally 11 m/36 ft) trunk diameter. The needle-like leaves, 0.5–2 cm (0.20–0.79 in) long, are borne spirally on the shoots, twisted at the base so as to appear in two flat rows on either side of the shoot. The cones are globose, 2–3.5 cm (0.79–1.4 in) diameter, with 10-25 scales, each scale with 1-2 seeds; they are mature in 7-9 months after pollination, when they disintegrate to release the seeds. The male (pollen) cones are produced in pendulous racemes, and shed their pollen in early spring.


The trees are especially prized for their wood, of which the heartwood is extremely rot and termite resistant. The heartwood contains a sesquiterpene called cypressene,[4] which acts as a natural preservative. It takes decades for cypressene to accumulate in the wood, so lumber taken from old-growth trees is more rot resistant than that from second-growth trees.[5] However, age also increases susceptibility to Pecky Rot fungus (Stereum taxodii), which attacks the heartwood and causes some damaged trees to become hollow and thus useless for timber. Bald Cypress wood was much used in former days in the southeastern United States for roof shingles.[6] The shredded bark of these trees is used as a mulch, although the current harvest rate for this product is unsustainable and is causing substantial environmental damage especially in the south where cutting boundaries are not being followed." wikipedia.org

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