Trees evergreen, monoecious; main branches horizontally spreading; branchlets pendulous, slender, long; winter buds small. Leaves spirally arranged, dimorphic: those of old branchlets densely arranged, subulate, scalelike, upwardly curved, triangular or quadrangular in cross section, with stomatal bands present on both surfaces, base short, decurrent, apex acute or obtuse, apiculate; those of young trees and new branchlets "S"-shaped-ovate or subulate, ± quadrangular in cross section, laterally compressed, apex straight to incurved, sharply pointed. Pollen cones borne in terminal clusters; microsporophylls many, spirally arranged; microsporangia 2-4, ovate. Seed cones terminal, solitary, erect, small; bracts rudimentary; ovules 2 per bract axil; cone scales of mature cones cuneately narrowed into claw and ± flat proximally, broadening distally into an exposed, rounded-spatulate, transversely convex portion, leathery, margin subentire, hyaline, densely and microscopically puberulent with extremely short, 2-or 3-celled hairs (margin thus appearing finely lacerate at low magnification), apical portion small, ± incurved, obtusely truncate, concavely notched, with small, protruding mucro. Seeds flat, with narrow, lateral wings, base and apex both notched. Cotyledons 2.
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