Phylogeny and evolution of Cupressaceae: Updates on intergeneric relationships and new insights on ancient intergeneric hybridization

•A robust transcriptome-based phylogeny of Cupressaceae comprising all 32 genera has been reconstructed.•An ancient hybridization might have occurred between ancestors of two subclades of Cupressoideae.•The Cupressaceae very likely originated in Asia in the Triassic.•Helically arranged linear-acicular leaves and imbricate bract-scale complexes are ancestral in Cupressaceae.