Thuja

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Thuja
Thuja standishii.jpg
Thuja standishii foliage and cones
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnospermae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Cupressales
Family: Cupressaceae
Subfamily: Cupressoideae
Genus: Thuja
L.
Type species
Thuja occidentalis
L.

Thuja ( /ˈθjuːdʒə/ THEW-jə) [1] is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. [2] [3] [4] [5] The genus is monophyletic and sister to Thujopsis . Members are commonly known as arborvitaes (from the Latin term for 'tree of life'), thujas or cedars. [6]

Contents

Description

Foliage of the cultivar 'Rheingold' Thuja 'Rheingold' in Autumn.JPG
Foliage of the cultivar 'Rheingold'

Thuja are evergreen trees growing from 10 to 200 feet (3 to 61 metres) tall, with stringy-textured reddish-brown bark. The shoots are flat, with side shoots only in a single plane. The leaves are scale-like and 1 to 10 mm (0.039 to 0.394 in) long, except young seedlings in their first year, which have needle-like leaves. The scale leaves are arranged in alternating decussate pairs in four rows along the twigs. The male cones are small, inconspicuous, and are located at the tips of the twigs. The female cones start out similarly inconspicuous, but grow to about 1 to 2 cm (0.39 to 0.79 in) long at maturity when 6–8 months old; they have 6-12 overlapping, thin, leathery scales, each scale bearing 1–2 small seeds with a pair of narrow lateral wings. [3]

The five species in the genus Thuja are small to large evergreen trees with flattened branchlets. The leaves are arranged in flattened fan shaped groupings with resin-glands, and oppositely grouped in 4 ranks. The mature leaves are different from younger leaves, with those on larger branchlets having sharp, erect, free apices. The leaves on flattened lateral branchlets are crowded into appressed groups and scale-like and the lateral pairs are keeled. With the exception of T. plicata, the lateral leaves are shorter than the facial leaves (Li et al. 2005). The solitary flowers are produced terminally. Pollen cones with 2-6 pairs of 2-4 pollen sacked sporophylls. Seed cones are ellipsoid, typically 9 to 14 mm (0.35 to 0.55 in) long, and mature and open the first year. The thin woody cone scales number from 4-6 pairs and are persistent and overlapping, with an oblong shape, they are also basifixed. The central 2-3 pairs of cone scales are fertile. The seed cones produce 1 to 3 seeds per scale, the seeds are lenticular in shape and equally 2 winged. Seedlings produce 2 cotyledons. [7] [8]

T. plicata bark, foliage Riesenlebensbaumstmrp.jpg
T. plicata bark, foliage
Old growth T. plicata, Olympic Peninsula, USA The Kalaloch Cedar - Flickr - rachel thecat.jpg
Old growth T. plicata, Olympic Peninsula, USA
Cultivars of T. occidentalis in an arboretum Podlaskie - Suprasl - Kopna Gora - Arboretum - Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' - plant.JPG
Cultivars of T. occidentalis in an arboretum
Thuja occidentalis cultivar 'EuropeGold' Thuja occidentalis 'EuropeGold'-201601-JAPAN.jpg
Thuja occidentalis cultivar 'EuropeGold'

A hybrid between T. standishi and T. plicata has been named as the cultivar Thuja 'Green Giant'.

Another very distinct and only distantly related species, formerly treated as Thuja orientalis, is now treated in a genus of its own, as Platycladus orientalis . The closest relatives of Thuja are Thujopsis dolabrata , distinct in its thicker foliage and stouter cones, and Tetraclinis articulata (Ancient Greek θυία or θύα, formerly classed in the genus and after which Thuja is named), distinct in its quadrangular foliage (not flattened) and cones with four thick, woody scales.

The genus Thuja, like many other forms of conifers, is represented by ancestral forms in Cretaceous rocks of northern Europe, and with the advance of time is found to migrate from northerly to more southerly regions, until during the Pliocene period, when it disappeared from Europe. Thuja is also known in the Miocene beds of the Dakotas. [9]

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

Stull et al. 2021 [10] [11]
Thuja

Species

The five extant species are: [2] [12] [13]

ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
Thuja koraiensis PAN foliage.JPG Thuja koraiensis NakaiKorean thuja Jilin, Korea
Thuja occidentalis 003.JPG Thuja occidentalis L.eastern arborvitae, northern whitecedarE Canada (Manitoba to Nova Scotia), E United States (primarily Northeast, Great Lakes, Appalachians)
Thuja plicata 43569.JPG Thuja plicata Donn ex D.Donwestern redcedarfrom Alaska to Mendocino County in California
Thuja standishii Brno2.JPG Thuja standishii (Gordon) CarrièreJapanese thuja Honshu, Shikoku
Thuja sutchuenensis (Gordon) CarrièreSichuan thuja Sichuan, Chongqing China almost extinct in the wild

Species formerly placed in Thuja include: [14] [ citation needed ]

and many more

The extant species Thuja sutchuenensis was believed to be extinct until 1999, when a small population was discovered in southeast China. [15]

Ecology

Thuja species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including autumnal moth, the engrailed and juniper pug. The foliage is also readily eaten by deer, and where deer population density is high, can adversely affect the growth of young trees and the establishment of seedlings. [16]

Distribution

The genus Thuja has current populations in both North America and East Asia. T. plicata has wide distribution in the Pacific Northwest from Northern California to Alaska, reaching East into Idaho and central British Columbia. T. occidentalis has populations in the Northeastern United States, reaching north into Ontario and Quebec, with some distribution as far south as Tennessee. [17]

T. standishii has populations in mountainous regions of Honshu and Shikoku islands in Japan, with no recorded population in the north of the country. T. koraiensis is native to both North and South Korea and has a small population in the Northern Chinese province of Jilin. [18] The newly rediscovered species T. sutchuenensis has extremely limited distribution in the mountains of Chengkou county in southeastern China.

Evolution and paleobiogeography

Current research suggests that Thuja originated in the Americas and migrated to East Asia via the Bering land bridge in the Miocene. Fossil records show that Thuja was significantly more widely distributed during the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary than we see today. [19] The oldest known Thuja fossil is of T. polaris (an extinct species) from the Paleocene of Ellesmere Island in present-day Nunavut, Canada. [18]

Other hypotheses of Thuja origin involved an East Asian origin, with the genus migrating twice; once east into North-western America and then west to the North-eastern America, but since no reliable fossil records of Thuja exist in either Western Asia or Europe, the possibility can be eliminated. [18]

Systematics

Thuja is a monophyletic genus that sits within the order Pinales in the Cupressaceae. Thuja is in the Cupressoid clade and is sister to the genus Thujopsis. The sister relationship between Thuja and Thujopsis is supported with 100% bootstrap support and 1.0 posterior probability. [20]

Within the genus the taxonomy is in flux, but most recent research based on molecular analysis of plastomes in the genus Thuja showed evidence for a new grouping, with two sister clades: T. standishii and T. koraiensis together and T. occidentalis and T. sutchuenensis together, with T. plicata sister to T. occidentails and T. sutchuenensis. [20] This newest grouping is hypothesized to be the result of reticulate evolution and hybridization within the genus.

Uses of thuja

They are widely grown as ornamental trees, and extensively used for hedges. A number of cultivars are grown and used in landscapes. [21] [22] Homeowners will sometimes plant them as privacy trees. The cultivar 'Green Giant' is popular as a very vigorous hedging plant, growing up to 80 cm/year when young. [23]

The wood is light, soft and aromatic. It can be easily split and resists decay. The wood has been used for many applications from making chests that repel moths to shingles. Thuja poles are also often used to make fence posts and rails. The wood of Thuja plicata is commonly used for guitar sound boards. [24] Its combination of light weight and resistance to decay has also led to T. plicata being widely used for the construction of bee hives. [25]

T. plicata is an important tree to the First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest and is sometimes called "Canoe Tree" because of its use as a material for Native American canoes.[ citation needed ]

Oil of Thuja contains the terpene thujone which has been studied for its GABA receptor antagonizing effects, with potentially lethal properties. [26] Cedarwood oil and cedar leaf oil, which are derived from Thuja occidentalis, have different properties and uses. [27]

The natives of Canada used the scaled leaves of Thuja occidentalis to make a tea that has been shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams; this helped prevent and treat scurvy. [28]

In the 19th century, Thuja was commonly used as an externally applied tincture or ointment for the treatment of warts, ringworm and thrush, [29] and a local injection of the tincture was used for treating venereal warts. [30]

A 2017 trial showed that its extract effectively killed both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. [31]

As with many Cupressaceae, Thuja can induce allergic reactions, including skin, eye and breathing problems.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cedrus</i> Genus of plants (coniferous trees)

Cedrus, with the common English name cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitudes of 1,500–3,200 m (4,900–10,500 ft) in the Himalayas and 1,000–2,200 m (3,300–7,200 ft) in the Mediterranean.

Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the Cupressus genus of the Cupressaceae family, typically found in warm-temperate and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupressaceae</span> Cypress family of conifers

Cupressaceae or the cypress family is a family of conifers. The family includes 27–30 genera, which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red-brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species. The family reached its peak of diversity during the mesozoic era.

<i>Cupressus</i> Several genera of evergreen conifers

Cupressus is one of several genera of evergreen conifers within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a polyphyletic group. Based on genetic and morphological analysis, the genus Cupressus is found in the subfamily Cupressoideae. The common name "cypress" comes via the Old French cipres from the Latin cyparissus, which is the latinisation of the Greek κυπάρισσος (kypárissos).

<i>Callitropsis nootkatensis</i> Species of conifer

Callitropsis nootkatensis, formerly known as Cupressus nootkatensis, is a species of tree in the cypress family native to the coastal regions of northwestern North America. This species goes by many common names including: Nootka cypress, yellow cypress, Alaska cypress, Nootka cedar, yellow cedar, Alaska cedar, and Alaska yellow cedar. The specific epithet nootkatensis is derived from the species being from the area of Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Both locations are named for the older European name Nootka, given the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation.

<i>Thuja plicata</i> Species of conifer

Thuja plicata is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Cupressaceae, native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. Its common name is western redcedar in the U.S. or western red cedar in the UK, and it is also called pacific red cedar, giant arborvitae, western arborvitae, just cedar, giant cedar, or shinglewood. It is not a true cedar of the genus Cedrus. T. plicata is the largest species in the genus Thuja, growing up to 70 metres (230 ft) tall and 7 m (23 ft) in diameter. It mostly grows in areas that experience a mild climate with plentiful rainfall, although it is sometimes present in drier areas on sites where water is available year-round, such as wet valley bottoms and mountain streamsides. The species is shade-tolerant and able to establish in forest understories and is thus considered a climax species. It is a very long-lived tree, with some specimens reaching ages of well over 1,000 years.

<i>Thuja occidentalis</i> Species of evergreen coniferous tree

Thuja occidentalis, also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern United States. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant. It is not to be confused with Juniperus virginiana.

<i>Platycladus</i> Genus of conifers

Platycladus is a monotypic genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Platycladus orientalis, also known as Chinese thuja, Oriental arborvitae, Chinese arborvitae, biota or Oriental thuja. It is native to northeastern parts of East Asia and North Asia, but is also now naturalised as an introduced species in other regions of the Asian continent.

<i>Calocedrus</i> Genus of conifer trees

Calocedrus, the incense cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873. Three species are native to eastern Asia and one to western North America.

<i>Thujopsis</i> Genus of conifers

Thujopsis is a genus of conifers in the cypress family (Cupressaceae), the sole member of which is Thujopsis dolabrata. It is endemic to Japan, where it is known as asunaro (あすなろ). It is similar to the closely related genus Thuja (arborvitae), differing in its broader, thicker leaves and cones.

<i>Taiwania</i> Genus of conifers

Taiwania, with the single living species Taiwania cryptomerioides, is a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae.

<i>Cunninghamia</i> Genus of conifers

Cunninghamia is a genus of one or two living species of evergreen coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae. They are native to China, northern Vietnam and Laos, and perhaps also Cambodia. They may reach 50 m (160 ft) in height. In vernacular use, it is most often known as Cunninghamia, but is also sometimes called "China-fir". The genus name Cunninghamia honours Dr. James Cunningham, a British doctor who introduced this species into cultivation in 1702 and botanist Allan Cunningham.

<i>Microbiota decussata</i> Species of plant

Microbiota is a monotypic genus of evergreen coniferous shrubs in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Microbiota decussata. The plant is native and endemic to a limited area of the Sikhote-Alin mountains in Primorskiy Krai in the Russian Far East. Microbiota is not to be confused with the range of microorganisms of the same name. The genus name was derived from micro-, meaning "small", + Biota, the genus name for a closely related conifer, a species formerly called Biota orientalis, now renamed Platycladus orientalis.

<i>Tetraclinis</i> Genus of conifers

Tetraclinis is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Tetraclinis articulata, also known as Thuja articulata, sandarac, sandarac tree or Barbary thuja, endemic to the western Mediterranean region.

<i>Austrocedrus</i> Species of plant

Austrocedrus is a genus of conifer belonging to the cypress family (Cupressaceae). It has only one species, Austrocedrus chilensis, native to the Valdivian temperate rain forests and the adjacent drier steppe-forests of central-southern Chile and western Argentina from 33°S to 44°S latitude. It is known in its native area as ciprés de la cordillera or cordilleran cypress, and elsewhere by the scientific name as Austrocedrus, or sometimes as Chilean incense-cedar or Chilean cedar. The generic name means "southern cedar".

Thuja sutchuenensis, the Sichuan thuja, is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae. It is native to China, where it is an endangered local endemic in Chengkou County, on the southern slope of the Daba Mountains.

<i>Calocedrus decurrens</i> Species of conifer

Calocedrus decurrens, with the common names incense cedar and California incense cedar, is a species of coniferous tree native to western North America. It is the most widely known species in the genus, and is often simply called incense cedar without the regional qualifier.

<i>Thuja koraiensis</i> Species of conifer

Thuja koraiensis, also called Korean arborvitae, is a species of Thuja, native to Korea and the extreme northeast of China (Changbaishan). Its current status is poorly known; the small population in China is protected in the Changbaishan Nature Reserve, as is the small population in Soraksan Nature Reserve in northern South Korea, but most of the species' range in North Korea is unprotected and threatened by habitat loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thujaplicin</span> Chemical compound

Thujaplicin is any of three isomeric tropolone-related natural products that have been isolated from the softwoods of the trees of Cupressaceae family. These compounds are known for their antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant properties. They were the first natural tropolones to be made synthetically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinokitiol</span> Chemical compound

Hinokitiol (β-thujaplicin) is a natural monoterpenoid found in the wood of trees in the family Cupressaceae. It is a tropolone derivative and one of the thujaplicins. Hinokitiol is used in oral and skin care products, and is a food additive used in Japan.

References

  1. ↑ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
    "Thuja" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. 1 2 "Thuja". Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 21 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens. ISBN   978-1-84246-068-9.
  4. ↑ Earle, Christopher J., ed. (2018). "Thuja". The Gymnosperm Database.
  5. ↑ Fu, Liguo; Yu, Yong-fu; Adams, Robert P.; Farjon, Aljos. "Thuja". Flora of China. Vol. 4 – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  6. ↑ NRCS. "Thuja". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Chambers, Kenton L. (1993). "Thuja". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 2. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  8. ↑ Gleason, Henry A. "Coniferae". New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of Eastern North America and Adjacent Canada. Vol. 1: The Pteridophya, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae. Hafner Press. pp. 58–67.
  9. ↑ Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Arbor Vitæ"  . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  10. ↑ Stull, Gregory W.; Qu, Xiao-Jian; Parins-Fukuchi, Caroline; Yang, Ying-Ying; Yang, Jun-Bo; Yang, Zhi-Yun; Hu, Yi; Ma, Hong; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Li, De-Zhu; Smith, Stephen A.; Yi, Ting-Shuang; et al. (2021). "Gene duplications and phylogenomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms". Nature Plants. 7 (8): 1015–1025. Bibcode:2021NatPl...7.1015S. bioRxiv   10.1101/2021.03.13.435279 . doi:10.1038/s41477-021-00964-4. PMID   34282286. S2CID   232282918.
  11. ↑ Stull, Gregory W.; et al. (2021). "main.dated.supermatrix.tree.T9.tre". Figshare. doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.14547354.v1.
  12. ↑ "GRIN Species Records of Thuja". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
  13. ↑ "Thuja". County-level distribution maps from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  14. ↑ "WCSP, the last web-archive snapshot before migration to POWO (Archive copy)". 2022-10-20. Archived from the original on 2022-10-20.
  15. ↑ Qiaoping, Xiang; Fajon, A.; Zhenyu, Li; Likuo, Fu; Zhengyu, Liu (2002-07-01). "Thuja sutchuenensis: a rediscovered species of the Cupressaceae". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 139 (3): 305–310. doi: 10.1046/j.1095-8339.2002.00055.x . ISSN   0024-4074.
  16. ↑ Stein, W. I. (1997). "Ten-year survival and growth of planted Douglas-fir and western redcedar after seven site-preparation treatments". Western Journal of Applied Forestry. 12 (3): 74–80. doi: 10.1093/wjaf/12.3.74 .
  17. ↑ Cowley, Jill; Zheng-yi, Wu; Raven, Peter H. (1997). "Flora of China Volume 15, Myrsinaceae through Loganiaceae". Kew Bulletin. 52 (3): 765. Bibcode:1997KewBu..52..765C. doi:10.2307/4110318. ISSN   0075-5974. JSTOR   4110318.
  18. 1 2 3 Cui, Yi-Ming; Sun, Bin; Wang, Hai-Feng; Ferguson, David Kay; Wang, Yu-Fei; Li, Cheng-Sen; Yang, Jian; Ma, Qing-Wen (2015-09-22). "Exploring the Formation of a Disjunctive Pattern between Eastern Asia and North America Based on Fossil Evidence from Thuja (Cupressaceae)". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0138544. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1038544C. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138544 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   4579098 . PMID   26393513.
  19. ↑ Peng, Dan; Wang, Xiao-Quan (June 2008). "Reticulate evolution in Thuja inferred from multiple gene sequences: Implications for the study of biogeographical disjunction between eastern Asia and North America". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 47 (3): 1190–1202. Bibcode:2008MolPE..47.1190P. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.02.001. ISSN   1055-7903. PMID   18346917.
  20. 1 2 Adelalu, Kole F.; Zhang, Xu; Qu, Xiaojian; Landis, Jacob B.; Sun, Yanxia; Meng, Aiping; Sun, Hang; Wang, Hengchang (2019-08-30). "Plastome phylogenomic and biogeographic study on Thuja (Cupressaceae)". Biomedical Research Int. doi: 10.1155/2020/8426287 . PMC   7335403 .
  21. ↑ Brand, Mark H. (2001). "Thuja plicata". UConn Plant Database. University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on 2007-10-29.
  22. ↑ Brand, Mark H. (2001). "Thuja occidentalis". UConn Plant Database. University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on 2007-10-21.
  23. ↑ "U.S. National Arboretum: Gardens: FAQs: 'Green Giant' Arborvitae". Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  24. ↑ Bucur, Voichita (1995). Acoustics of wood. Boca Raton: CRC Press. doi:10.1201/9780203710128.
  25. ↑ Owano, Nacy. "Flow Hive 2 sees sweet success in offering new features for honey on tap". Tech Xplore. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  26. ↑ Höld KM, Sirisoma NS, Ikeda T, Narahashi T, Casida JE (2000). "Alpha-thujone (the active component of absinthe): gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor modulation and metabolic detoxification". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 (8): 3826–31. Bibcode:2000PNAS...97.3826H. doi: 10.1073/pnas.070042397 . PMC   18101 . PMID   10725394.
  27. ↑ "Cedarwood Oil Vs Cedar Leaf Oil". Cedar Leaf Canada. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  28. ↑ Johnston, William F. (1990). "Thuja occidentalis". In Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H. (eds.). Conifers. Silvics of North America. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: United States Forest Service (USFS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – via Southern Research Station.
  29. ↑ Hoffmann, David (2003). Medical Herbalism: Principles and Practices. Healing Arts Press. p. 588. ISBN   978-0-89281-749-8.
  30. ↑ Grieve, M. (1931). A Modern Herbal. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 177.
  31. ↑ Sah, Shiv Nandan; Regmi, Sunil; Tamang, Man Kumar (2017-06-29). "Antibacterial Effects of Thuja Leaves Extract". International Journal of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology. 5 (2): 256–260. doi: 10.3126/ijasbt.v5i2.17617 . ISSN   2091-2609.
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