Callitropsis

Description

Callitropsis ( synonym Xanthocyparis ) is a genus of cypresses belonging to the Cupresaceae family, with several that are native to North America and a native of Vietnam in Southeast Asia . Farjon et al. (2002) described the new genus Xanthocyparis to accommodate the new Vietnamese species X. vietnamensis and another species, X. nootkatensis , the Nootka cypress , which had previously been included in the genus Chamaecyparis (Camecíparis) as C. nootkatensis (Camecíparis de Nootka). This was partly due to the discovery that C. nootkatensis was more closely related to the genus Cupressus than to Chamaecyparis (Gadek et al., 2000). Little et al. (2004), while confirming the previous relationship with new evidence, pointed out that as described by Farjon et al., Xanthocyparis included the type species of Callitropsis ( Cupressus nootkatensis , a synonym of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis and Xanthocyparis nootkatensis ). Callitropsis had been described by Oersted in 1864 but this name had been ignored by Farjon and most other authors; Under the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature , Callitropsis as the oldest publication name, has priority when naming about Xanthocyparisif this genus includes Cupressus nootkatensis . Little et al. therefore they recognized Xanthocyparis as a synonym of Callitropsis . The name Xanthocyparis has been proposed since then for conservation above Callitropsis (Mill & Farjon 2006), but unless that proposal is approved at the next International Botanical Congress in 2011, these species are correctly classified as Callitropsis if they are recognized as a genre different from the rest. Little et al. (2004) also presented evidence that Cupressus is paraphyletic with respect to Juniperus and Callitropsis , with the North American species of Cupressus more closely related to Callitropsis than with the Cupresaceae species of European and Asian. These species have been transferred to Callitropsis by Little (2006), but this transfer has not been universally accepted. (Hogan and Frankis, 2009)