Pilgerodendron uviferum
| Pilgerodendron uviferum | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Cupressaceae |
| Subfamily: | Callitroideae |
| Genus: |
Pilgerodendron Florin |
| Species: | P. uviferum |
| Binomial name | |
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Pilgerodendron uviferum (D.Don) Florin |
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| Synonyms | |
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Pilgerodendron is a genus of conifer belonging to the cypress family Cupressaceae. It has only one species, Pilgerodendron uviferum, and is endemic to the Valdivian temperate rain forests and Magellanic subpolar forests of southern Chile and southwestern Argentina. It grows from 40 to 55°S in Tierra del Fuego, where it is the southernmost conifer in the world. It is a member of subfamily Callitroideae, a group of distinct southern hemisphere genera associated with the Antarctic flora.
It is very closely related to the New Zealand and New Caledonian genus Libocedrus, and many botanists treat it within this genus, as Libocedrus uvifera (D.Don) Pilg. It is also a taxonomical synonym for Libocedrus tetragona (Hooker). It is known locally as Ciprés de las Guaitecas, (after the Guaitecas Archipelago) and elsewhere by its scientific name, as Pilgerodendron. The genus is named after Robert Knud Friedrich Pilger.
It is a slow-growing, narrowly conical evergreen tree which grows from 2–20 m in height (with taller trees existing formerly), with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter (reported to 3 m diameter in the past). The leaves are scale-like, arranged in decussate pairs. The leaves are all equal in size, giving the shoots a square cross-section (unlike the Libocedrus species, where pairs of larger leaves alternate with pairs of smaller leaves, giving a somewhat flattened shoot). The seed cones are 5–12 mm long and 4–6 mm broad, with four scales, two sterile basal scales and two fertile scales; each scale has a slender spine-like bract, and each fertile scale has two winged seeds 3–4 mm long. The pollen cones are 5–10 mm long and 2 mm broad, with 12–20 scales.
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