MEDITERRANEAN CYPRESS: A TREE WITH MANY NAMES

This evergreen-conifer tree has many synonyms. Some of these are the following: Cupressus sempervirens, or “Mediterranean cypress,” (also known as "Italian cypress," "Tuscan cypress," "Persian cypress," “pencil pine", “tiny towers,” or “green spine”). 

This kind of tree tapers quickly (i.e., pencil shaped). As a result, it is a very narrow (4 to 5 feet wide) tree, but it can be very tall (commonly reported as up to 115 feet tall (= 35 m). In my neighborhood in southern California (northern Los Angeles Count), there are many localized stands of these trees. The tallest of these trees could be 80+ feet tall (estimated height), as they have been growing for about 60 years!

A cluster of this cypress in Southern California, with a telephone pole, for scale. The maximum height of this cluster is  at least, 70 to 80 feet tall.

The “Italian cypress” occurs in southern Europe, western Asia, and was eventually introduced into the United States via commercial plant nurseries. These plants, which are relative inexpensive and grow three to four feet/year are used as ornamental trees around homes in southern California. They are very hardy and tolerate frost. One warning however, is that they can attract rats, which establish carefully hidden nests in the foliage. They rapidly increase their height (about 2 to 3 feet per year), but eventually their growth rate slows. Their roots are primarily vertical and usually not disruptive to nearby walls. 

Only the uppermost 10 feet of each tree in this cluster is where the seed cones are located (not! elsewhere on the plant).

The foliage of this type of tree consists of clusters of short needles on upright branches. Shown here is a cluster, 7 inches long, 5.5 inches wide.

This plant does not flower, but in the late summer and fall, it produces small, roundish, green to brown (can be copper color) seed cones, which are initially closed--but open up somewhat later. Shown here are representative seed cones from the upper part of the tree. The cones are about 1.5 inches in height and ¾ inch in diameter.

A dried up and cracked seed cone, ¾ inch height and by ¾ inch in diameter. Dried cones are used for crafts and decorations. The cones are tightly held together at first; eventually, they fall apart.

The fossil record of this genus is poorly known. The geologically earliest known occurrence of Cupressus in the rock record is Oligocene in age (very approximately 30 million years old) in South China (Shi, G. et al., 2011). A Paleocene fossil of Cupressoconus from Britain is probably an earlier representative of genus Cupressus (Shi et al, 2011).

Referencs Cited or consulted

Belger, T.J. 1984. Roadside plants of southern California. Mountain Press Publishing Co., Missoula. 157 pp.

Shi, G. and others, 2011. Cupressus foliage shoots and associated seed cones from the Oligocne Ningming Formation of Cuangzi, south China. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 166(3):325-334.  (free pdf available online)

Watts, T. Desert tree finder. Natural Study Guild. 61 pp. [note: an inexpensive “pocket

book” for hikers].