familyCupressaceae
genusCallitris
Show Lower Taxa
Callitris
Dec. Gen. Nov. 10. 1808.
Common names: Cypress-pine
Etymology: Greek callos, beautiful, and treis, three, referring to the beauty of the plants and the three-whorled leaves and cone scales
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 2.
Shrubs or trees evergreen. Branchlets angled or furrowed-cylindrical, variously oriented. Leaves in whorls of 3–5. Adult leaves scalelike, appressed, abaxial surface keeled or rounded, free portion to 1 mm, abaxial glands absent. Pollen cones solitary or in small clusters, with 4–15 whorls of sporophylls, each with 2–4 pollen sacs. Seed cones maturing in 1–2 years, of 1–2 sizes, often remaining unopened for many years, ovoid or globose, 1–3.5 cm; scales persistent, in 2 equally inserted whorls of 3(–4), valvate, rhombic-deltate, basifixed, thick and woody. Seeds 2–9 per scale, round or 3-angled, broadly 1–3-winged; cotyledons 2.
Distribution
North America, Australia, and New Caledonia.
Discussion
Species 16 (1 naturalized in the flora).