Curtis Botanical – Plate 5603 – Chinese Swamp Cypress / Water Pine

Original antique black-and-white print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 5603.

A living fossil — one of the rarest trees in the world, almost extinct in the wild with perhaps fewer than 1,000 mature trees remaining in southern China and Vietnam. It is the last surviving species of a genus that once stretched across the entire Northern Hemisphere, including the site of modern Chicago, 50 million years ago.

Chinese and Vietnamese heritage connection.

Uncolored plate. Condition consistent with age of volume. Each print is a unique piece of botanical history, printed on paper aged over a century.

This plate originated with the Royal Horticultural Society and passed through Wheldon & Wesley, one of the great natural history dealers of the 20th century. We came into the archive by accident and have spent the time since trying to share it as widely as we can.