Description:

• Monoecious or occasionally dioecious, evergreen trees or shrubs; wood containing resin
• Leaves usually of two types, in juvenile form often needle-like, spirally or subspirally arranged and spreading, in adult form usually small, scale-like, whorled or decussate, ± appressed and completely hiding the stem
• Male cones catkin-like, small, mostly terminal and solitary; scales few to many, decussate or in whorls of 3, bearing at base on abaxial surface 2-10 pollen sacs; pollen grains without wings or air-bladders
• Female cones with enlarged leathery or woody, valvate or imbricate and finally gaping scales, rarely fleshy and berry-like (*Juniperus); scales few to many, all or most fertile, bearing 1-20 erect ovules at base on adaxial surface. Seeds free, rarely united in a stone, mostly winged; testa crustaceous to woody
• Cotyledons 2, rarely 3-6.

Nomenclature:

• Cupressaceae
  • Stapf: 14 (1933)
  • Marsh: 43 (1966), the basis of this account
  • Page: 302 (1990)
  • Von Breitenbach & Von Breitenbach: 179 (1992)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera ± 16, species ± 115, cosmopolitan
• Southern Africa: Genera 3 (2 exotic), species 5 (2 exotic)

References:

• MARSH, J.A. 1966. Cupressaceae. Flora of southern Africa 1
• PAGE, C.N. 1990. Cupressaceae. In K. Kubitzki, The families and genera of vascular plants 1. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
• STAPF, O. 1933. Cupressaceae. Flora capensis 5, 2 (Supplement)
• VON BREITENBACH, F. & VON BREITENBACH, J. 1992. Cupressaceae. Tree atlas of southern Africa section 1. Dendrological Foundation, Pretoria

Resources:

• Key to Cupressaceae genera

• Cupressaceae genera: