Mostly Northern Hemisphere, but one taxon occurs in the south. Contains large trees only. Many are timber trees. Some taxa have fleshy covering on the seed called an epimatium. This can be colored like the juniper cones or the arils of Taxus .
Pollen is usually saccate.
Taxodiaceae small family of mostly endemic trees, about 10 genera most of which are endemics. Found only one place on earth. E.g.'s include redwood Sequoia , big tree Sequoiadendron , dawn redwood Metasequoia , Cryptomeria etc. Some people would like to merge this group with the Cupressaceae into the same family. They are obviously closely related.