Commemorating Captain Widdrington, (Spanish traveller.)
Evergreen trees and shrubs with fragrant wood. Juvenile leaves needle-like and spirally arranged. Adult leaves scale-like and closely pressed to the stem in opposite pairs at right angles to one another or rarely alternate. Cones of both sexes borne on the same plant. Male cones terminal, about 2-4 mm long on short lateral branchlets. Female cones woody, 1.5-2.5 cm wide; scales 4, rarely 5-6, warty or smooth, each with several ovules at the base. Seed thinly winged.
Conditions in Australia do not appear to be suitable for growth of this genus: attempts to grow the species are reported as largely unsuccessful in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria with growth generally only attaining heights of 1-2 m. All three species were under cultivation at the Mt Lofty and Wittunga Gardens Adelaide in 1991. W. nodiflora (L.) Powrie is now generally placed in synonymy under W. cupressoides (L.) Endl. which is grown in the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens at Hobart.
3 species from South Africa where they are protected plants.
Similar to Callitris but with mature scale leaves either alternate or in opposite pairs alternating at right angles to one another; cones with mostly 4 scales.
Marsh (1966).
Source: (1995). Cupressaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
