Common Names
Bhutan cypress (1), Himalayan cypress (2), Hoàng dàn (Vietnamese) (3).Taxonomic notes
Syn: C. flagelliformis Knight.; C. nepalensis Loud.; C. tournefortii Ten. (2). One variety, cashmeriana (1).Description
A evergreen tree 15-25(45) m tall, with a dbh of 40-60(90) cm. Crown large oval to broadly conical. Bark thick, grey brown or brown, peeling off in longitudinal strips. Branches slender, drooping, with thin, whip-like tips. Branchlets cylindrical, nearly quadrangular, branching in whorls. Shoots in a single plane. Leaves scale-like, closely appressed, obtuse, dark green, often with a small dorsal furrow. Male cone subglobular, 5-6mm long. Female cones globose or elliptic, grouped on very short stalks, 10-20 mm across, green or purple when young, later turning dark brown, composed of 6-8(10) scales, with a small central depression and a small, triangular, reflexed mucro. Seeds 6-8 to each scale, red-brown. Cones appear in February-March, seed matures in May-June. Wood is pale yellow with pale brown heartwood, hard and durable (2, 3).Range
W. Himalaya at 1800-300 m on limestone substrates; China: W Sichuan, in arid areas at 1500-2500 m (2); and Vietnam, where restricted to a narrow area of the Central Region and the North at elevations of 800-1200 m in Lang Son and Tuyen Quang. Also planted in Kon Tum and Lam Dong. It is a shade intolerant species, thriving in tropical and subtropical rainforests, where it prefers calcareous substrates. It occurs naturally as a dominant in mixed stands with Markhamia stipulata and Burretiodendron hsienmu, sometimes forming pure stands on mountain slopes and summits. It is rather slow-growing, and natural regeneration is very limited.Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
It is a prime timber with straight grain and fine texture, resistant to termites and insects. Used for cabinetwork, office furniture, fine art articles. Also used in construction and railway carriage-making. The wood is aromatic, especially the root-wood, and an essential oil extracted from these parts is used in medicine to cure inflammatory wounds, or as an antiseptic, and is also used for cosmetics (3). It serves as an ornamental in Yugoslavia (2), and presumably elsewhere in the West.Observations
Remarks
Listed as threatened/endangered in Vietnam by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. As an endangered species; it needs protection in its remaining natural distribution area in Lang Son and Tuyen Quang provinces, and plantations should be established to preserve the gene resource for further development of this species (3).Cupressus torulosa var. cashmeriana (Syn: C. cashmeriana Royle ex Carr., C. corneyana), the Kashmir cypress, is found in Tibet (1). It is described as: "A smaller tree, of conical habit ... Shoots flattened. Leaves blue-green, outspread. Cones globose, 12 mm across, initially pale green and bluish pruinose, later dark brown, composed of 10 scales depressed at the centre, with a pointed, triangular and reflexed process, about 10 seeds to each scale" (2).
Citations
(1) Silba 1986.(2) Vidakovic 1991.
(3) Forest Inventory and Planning Institute 1996.
[Cupressus] [Cupressaceae] [home]
This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/cu/cup/torulosa.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 31-Dec-98