The true Swamp Cypress – Glyptostrobus - has only one species left in the world – the Chinese Swamp Cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis) – a hardy, tall conifer with a strong, decay-resistant wood that smells like heaven and packed with medicinal properties. And they are going extinct.
The True Swamp Cypress. Source: Tony Rodd's photos
The Cenozoic Era (“new life”, from kainos in Greek meaning “new” and zoe, which means “life”) spanned from 66 million years ago (1 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs) to present day. In the dawn of this age, you would be shadowed by the majestic shade of the Swamp Cypress almost everywhere you go, whose height can reach up to over 30m (over 100 ft. – or a nice 9, 10 floors building). With a habitat ranging most of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching up even the high Arctic circles during the hotter past days of the Paleocene and Eocene, the Glyptostrobus genus accumulated so much biomass that it is responsible for most of the coal during the Cenozoic Era.
Vietnamese Forest Guards - with one of the last Swamp Cypresses in the world. Source: laodong.com.vn
And now there are 166 left of this genus that are still growing in a wild habitat – 162 of which in Đăk Lăk, Vietnam, and the other 4 in Bank Hall Gardens, Lancashire, United Kingdom. Not even the country that bears it name has wild Swamp Cypress anymore. And the loggers took out 1/3 of the last wild trees in the last 2 years.
It is not that the tree is weak – the Swamp Cypress has the scented wood that no termite can bust through, a solid structure with “knees” to pull oxygen from roots and plant deep in swamplands, a towering height to drink in sunlight, and a lifespan of up to 1000 years. It is humanity that killed it off – the beautiful tree to be uprooted and planted in your privileged yard, a wood false rumoured to be able to cure cancer (which it might help, but no, not cure), and again, a pleasantly scented, structurally solid wood that can take on termites and time.
It is not that the tree is weak – the Swamp Cypress has the scented wood that no termite can bust through, a solid structure with “knees” to pull oxygen from roots and plant deep in swamplands, a towering height to drink in sunlight, and a lifespan of up to 1000 years. It is humanity that killed it off – the beautiful tree to be uprooted and planted in your privileged yard, a wood false rumoured to be able to cure cancer (which it might help, but no, not cure), and again, a pleasantly scented, structurally solid wood that can take on termites and time.
Another pretty picture. Source: ruga.bohr-uni-bochum.de
No, the Cypress will not be gone entirely. Such a valuable tree is being grown around the world, trying to put it back in the wild. But they are just shrubs, the size of a bush at most. The tall, wild and strong ones that are 500 to 800 years old are almost gone for good.
Not that this calls you to do anything. It’s just to show how mankind has, once more, brought nature down.
Think how this species once spanned half of the world, and that indirectly, still provides you with thermal electricity every day.
And now it’s going, going, gone.
Not that this calls you to do anything. It’s just to show how mankind has, once more, brought nature down.
Think how this species once spanned half of the world, and that indirectly, still provides you with thermal electricity every day.
And now it’s going, going, gone.
RSS Feed
