Narrative

Piute cypress (Cupressus nevadensis) is found in Kern County California. (Kern county is east of Santa Barbara in south central California.) This is found as a tree to about 30 feet tall.

Cypresses (Genus Cupressus) are a group of 20 evergreen shrubs and trees with overlapping scales of foliage. These are native to North and Central America, North Africa and the Orient. There are eleven species and two subspecies now growing in North America. The native species originated in Arizona, California, and Mexico.

Juniper (Cupressaceae family) group contains about 120-140 species worldwide with about 14-17 different genera. Included herein are the Juniperus and Cupressus genera. Some authors include the Taxodiaceae (Taxodium and Sequoia) genera here. Here they are placed in the Taxodiaceae family.

Conifers (Order Coniferae) is an important group of trees and bushes found throughout the world. Although very common in the forests everywhere, this group of plants has only about 520 species. They are characterized by having needles. Pine trees and spruce trees are typical examples of conifers.

Gymnosperms are a group of trees and bushes usually characterized by needles and the production of cones to support the seeds. Most species are evergreen. (The actual technical definition has to do with the method of producing the seed.)

There are over 600 species of Gymnosperms known to science. The largest genus in this group in terms of species is the Pine genus with about 120 species. The second most common genus is the Podocarpus genus which is normally a more tropical group than the Pines.

Kartesz lists 135 species as growing in greater North America, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.