Friday 6 March 2009

Conifer at Monserrate


Digital Herbarium 05/03/2009





Checking this one through. Had always marked down as Taxodium ascendens - but doesn't seem right. More inclined to Athrotaxis laxifolia. No cones as yet.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Conifers are tough....need close-ups of leaves and ,as you say, cones male and female. Are these conifers grouped by origin, or best local microclimate?

Gerald Luckhurst said...

I think I have more books on conifers than any other single group. But I can't say I'm any the wiser. Will scan a spray of foliage from this tree. Unfortunately it is very tall and I have never seen cones.

Gerald

Gerald Luckhurst said...

Sorry missed your comment about tree location. Monserrate in principle is planted in geographic zones. But it is very loose. Two hundred years is a long time to maintain a system. This Conifer is in "Mexico" - that's why I was always content with the Taxodium ID.

Anonymous said...

Dacrydium cupressinum from New Zealand....what do you think, Gerald?

Gerald Luckhurst said...

Thank you so much. I could kick myself, this is a tree for which I have a sort of blind spot! There is a big old tree at the Pena (another of Sintra's historic gardens) but somehow it refuses to stick in my memory. I guess it will now. Looking at New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Website I can see now why I have never spotted cones. Also your suggestion has led me to rediscover a very useful book lost on my bookshelves Yvonne Cave's New Zealand Native Plants. It also has good photos of Alectryon excelsus - but I'm not sure I should have recognised it without your help.

Thanks again. This weekend I have to finish translating a Portuguese book on palms into English - publisher is getting impatient. But I will try to dig out one or two more antipodeans as a break.

Gerald