Fitzroya cupressoides (Molina)
Shrub, or tree: evergreen; erect; 48.8 m
maximum height; monoecious, or dioecious. Trunk: 9.2 m maximum diameter.
Bark: red, or brown; peeling off in strands, or furrowed. Crown:
dense, or rather open; widely conical (pyramidal). Branches: horizontal,
or drooping. Ultimate branchlets: arranged
3-dimensionally; triangular or roundish in cross-section.
Leaves: only adult leaves on adult plants;
needle-like (linear: flattened in cross-section). Needle leaves: 1–5 mm
long; 1–2 mm wide; arranged in whorls of 3; slightly spreading, or spreading;
dark green, or green with whitish coating (somewhat bluish); tip blunt, or
acute; with two white stripes.
Male cones: 4–6 mm long; solitary;
15–24 male cone scales; 5–8 male cone scale whorls; oblong; yellow or bright
brown. Male cone scales: arranged in whorls of 3; 4–7 pollen sacs per
male cone scale.
Female cones: 3–9 mm long; 6–15 mm wide;
4–9 cone scales; globose, depressed-globose or 2-lobed; cone-like (open after
maturity); woody; not disintegrating after maturity; bright; young cones
greenish. Female cone scales: arranged oppositely or in whorls of 3;
inserted at the same level in mature cones; without several small additional
cone scales on the female cone; tip blunt; with small dorsal umbo; umbo more or
less in the centre, or near the tip. Columella: 2–6 mm long; apart
(2-/3-/4-lobed, 2-/3-/4-partite).
Seeds: 1–5 mm long; 1–5 mm wide; 6–25 seeds
per cone; red, or bright – middle brown; 1–6 seed(s) per female cone scale; flattened.
Seed wings: 0.5–2 mm wide; 3, or 2 (almost)
equal wings.
Supplement: maturity in the first
year; 2–8 cotyledones; 11 chromosomes (1n). Cultivation:
cultivated in