Wood anatomy of Cupressus and its relation to geographical distribution

The wood anatomy of 14 species of Cupressus was studied to determine whether there is a pattern of wood anatomical diversity between the species from the North and Central American (western) region and the Eurasian (eastern) region. Xanthocyparis vietnamensis and Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (syn. Xanthocyparis nootkatensis) were also studied to compare their wood anatomy, given their recent inclusion by some authors in Cupressus. The arrangement of the axial parenchyma, morphology of the transverse end walls of the axial parenchyma, presence of ray tracheids, typology of the end walls of the ray parenchyma cells and ray height support to some extent the division of Cupressus into two large groups: the American group (western region) and the Eurasian group (eastern region), as proposed in molecular phylogenetic studies. The wood anatomy of Chamaecyparis nootkatensis shares the presence of ray tracheids and the same ray typology with American Cupressus, and has the same ray height as Eurasian Cupressus. In contrast, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis shares the absence of ray tracheids and the same ray typology with Eurasian Cupressus, and has the same ray height as American Cupressus.