Fitzroya Hook. f. ex Lindl.

Sponsor

Kindly sponsored by
The Samuel Storey Family Charitable Trust

Credits

Tom Christian (2018)

Recommended citation
Christian, T. (2018), 'Fitzroya' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/fitzroya/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Family

Cupressaceae

Species in genus

Fitzroya cupressoides

Glossary

endemic: (of a plant or an animal) Found in a native state only within a defined region or country.

References

Earle, C.J. (ed) (2018). The Gymnosperm Database

Credits

Tom Christian (2018)

Recommended citation
Christian, T. (2018), 'Fitzroya' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/fitzroya/). Accessed 2024-04-19.

Degraded Fitzroya forest near Puerto Mont, Chile, where the loggers left only a few scattered old trees. Regeneration in such sites is typically poor, with Fitzroya being out-competed by vigorous understorey species, such as the Chusquea seen here. Image Tom Christian.

An evergreen, dioecious or occasionally monoecious tree capable of attaining great size and age. Branches not whorled, shoots angular, leaves scale-like in whorls of three. Female cones globose, to 1 cm across, of up to nine scales arranged in three alternating whorls, each scale bearing between two and six, two or three-winged seeds (Earle 2018).

A genus of a single extant species of conifer in the Cupressaceae, endemic to southern Chile and Argentina. It was named for Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN, who captained HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his voyage to the Galapagos. In the 1990s, fossilised foliage dating from the Oligocene (c. 35 million years ago) was discovered in Tasmania and described as a new species in the fossil record, demonstrating the Gondwanan origins of the genus.