Florissant - Fossil Ecosystems of North America: A Guide to the Sites and their Extraordinary Biotas - page 204

although, perhaps surprisingly, few
specimens of this inhabitant of damp
places have been found.
Conifers are well represented at
Florissant, and anyone familiar with modern
coniferous floras will immediately recognize
the genera. The modern Torreya is known
from six species with a disjunct distribution:
two in North America and four from east
Asia. The California Torreya is found in the
mountains of central and northern
California, but the Florida To r r e y a is
restricted to the east bank of the Apalachi-

cola River in the Panhandle region of the
state. Characteristic spiky needles of this tree
occur at Florissant. Chamaecyparis , the false-
cypress ( 225 ), is commonly grown in gardens
as a dense hedging plant or tall, spire-like
ornamental. Its typical, flattened fronds are
common in the Florissant beds. Like Torreya ,
the genus Chamaecyparis today has a
disjunct distribution on the Pacific coast of
North America, the east coast, and east Asia.
The redwoods ( 226 ) have already been
mentioned. Today, the coast redwood,
Sequoia sempervirens , occurs only on the

225 226

225 Foliage of the false-cypress
Chamaecyparis linguafoliaCupressaceae
NHM. Length 80 mm 3.1 in.

226 Twig of SequoiaTaxodicaeae. This
species shows long, flattened leaves similar to
those of the modern coast redwood Sequoia
sempervirensNHM. Length 170 mm 6.7 in.