Cupressus goveniana |
Cupressus arizonica |
|
---|---|---|
Gowen cypress, Mendocino cypress, Santa Cruz cypress |
Arizona cypress, Arizona smooth cypress, cedro, cedro blanco, ciprés de Arizona, Cuyamaca cypress, Piute cypress |
|
Habit | Shrubs or small trees usually to 10 m, but to 50 m under favorable conditions, or bearing cones at as little as 2 dm on shallow hardpan soils; crown globose to columnar, dense or sparse. | Trees to 23 m, shrubby where subject to fires; crown conic at first, broadly columnar with age, dense. |
Bark | smooth or rough, fibrous. |
smooth at first, remaining so or becoming rough, furrowed, fibrous. |
Branchlets | decussate, 1–1.5 mm diam. |
decussate, 1.3–2.3 mm diam. |
Leaves | without abaxial gland or sometimes with embedded abaxial gland that does not produce drop of resin, not glaucous. |
usually with conspicuous, pitlike, abaxial gland that produces drop of resin, often highly glaucous. |
Pollen cones | 3–4 × 1.5–2 mm; pollen sacs 3–6. |
2–5 × 2 mm; pollen sacs mostly 4–6. |
Seed(s) | cones globose, 1–2.5(–3) cm, grayish brown, not glaucous; scales 3–5 pairs, smooth, umbo nearly flat at maturity. |
cones globose or oblong, mostly 2–3 cm, gray or brown, often glaucous at first; scales mostly 3–4 pairs, smooth or with scattered resin blisters, sometimes with erect conic umbos to 4 mm, especially on apical scales. |
2n | = 22. |
|
Cupressus goveniana |
Cupressus arizonica |
|
Habitat | Coastal closed-cone pine forests, especially on sterile soils | Canyon bottoms, pinyon-juniper woodland, chaparral |
Elevation | 60–800 m (200–2600 ft) | 750–2000 m (2500–6600 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
AZ; CA; NM; TX; Mexico
|
Discussion | Populations from the three regions of Cupressus goveniana —north coast, Santa Cruz Mountains, and Monterey Peninsula—differ in foliage and seed characters and have been treated as varieties or species; additional interpopulational variation occurs within these regions. Trees from Santa Cruz Mountain populations may have originated through hybidization with C. sargentii (E. Zavarin et al. 1971). The pygmy forests of this species and Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon on the shallow hardpan soils of coastal terraces of the Mendocino white plains are a remarkable example of phenotypic plasticity. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Bark texture and foliage features have been used to distinguish geographic varieties or segregate species. Although bark texture may be consistent within populations, over the species as a whole there is complete intergradation between smooth and fibrous barks. Various forms are commonly cultivated and sometimes persistent in the southern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. |
Parent taxa | Cupressaceae > Cupressus | Cupressaceae > Cupressus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | C. abramsiana, C. goveniana var. abramsiana, C. goveniana var. pigmaea, C. pigmaea | C. arizonica var. glabra, C. arizonica var. nevadensis, C. arizonica var. stephensonii, C. glabra, C. nevadensis, C. stephensonii |
Name authority | Gordon: J. Hort. Soc. London 4: 295. (1849) | Greene: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 9: 64. (1882) |
Web links |