Plant Collection - Coastal New Jersey

Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Bri on, Sterns & Poggenb. - Atlan c White Cedar Date: January 20, 2021 Loca on: Ca us Island State Park, Toms River, New Jersey Soil condi ons + habitat: Coastal marsh, sandy, coarse and rocky soil. 3-5 above sea level.

Height & habitat: 30 tall, individual woody and apically dominant central stem growing from soil, 12in in diameter, columnar scale like leaves alterna vely arrangement. Full foliage crown growing close together. Surrounded by other trees and grasses plants along marsh bank.

Light and moisture condi ons: full sun with sandy soil. Dry at grade but adjacent to wet marsh 1-2 below.

Eleva on: 1-3 above sea level Characteris cs: Leaves: scaley and glaucous with margins en re. Alterna vely arranged in dis chous overlapping, rhombic pa ern. Evergreen. Brown cones at terminal node.

Stem/trunk: singular ver cal trunk. Reddish brown, Woody, thick, fibrous and peeling in long strips, o en par ally twisted around the trunk.

Iden fica on: Specimen appeared to be a gymnosperm as it is an evergreen conifer with scale like leaves. This led me to further inves gate the naked seed entries on pages 46-49 of ‘Botany in a Day’ where the specimen most similarly matched the cypress or cedar family on page 48 as it is an “evergreen tree or shrub with small, scaley leaves”.(Eipel, 2018) I originally believed the specimen to be a juniper tree due to the length of the individual sprays of scales.

This led me to research decussate scale pa erns in google images where I found a key on researchgate and matched my specimen to the Chamaecyparis sample but did not agree with the species listed. From here I searched the genus but was overwhelmed with results with full foliage. It was not un l I searched for Chamaecyparis exposed trunk where I found the eastern white cedar.

I confirmed the specimen characteris cs on the USDA forestry website, Wikipedia and USDA Plants website star ng with the natural range of the specimen, the bark and the scale descrip ons and photos. The main iden fying characteris c of the bark as “reddish-brown, irregularly furrowed and ridged, peeling in long, fibrous strips, o en par ally twisted around the trunk”(USDA,2021) matches my specimen. Addi onally, the specimen is described as “bordering dal marsh”(USDA,2021) and my specimen is located in a salt marsh.

In addi on to the matching photos, the characteris cs listed on the USDA facts sheet are matching.

A Botanists Vocabulary was referenced to be er understand all terms found in ‘Botany in a Day’ and on the USDA database. (Pell & Angell, 2016) Iden ty: Kingdom: Plantae – Plants Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division: Coniferophyta – Conifers Class: Pinopsida Order: Pinales Family: Cupressaceae – Cypress family Genus: Chamaecyparis Spach – cedar Species: Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Bri on, Sterns & Poggenb. – Atlan c white cedar 7