Chinese Swamp Cypress

The Chinese Swamp Cypress, Glyptostrobus pensilis, is a critically endangered conifer of the cypress family and the only living species in its genus, known in Chinese as shui song. It is a medium to large tree reaching about thirty meters tall with trunks up to one meter in diameter, with deciduous, spirally arranged leaves five to twenty millimeters long, pear-shaped cones that ripen from green to yellow-brown, and, like related trees, it develops knee-like pneumatophores when growing in waterlogged ground. It occurs in subtropical southeastern China from Fujian west to southeastern Yunnan, with isolated populations in central Vietnam and Laos, growing along riverbanks, pond margins, and swamps in water up to sixty centimeters deep. The species is nearly extinct in the wild from overcutting for its valuable, decay-resistant, scented wood, though it survives in cultivation near rice paddies, where its roots help stabilize the embankments.