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Gowen cypress, Mendocino cypress, Santa Cruz cypress

Baker cypress, Modoc cypress, Siskiyou 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 30 m; crown broadly columnar, sparse.
Bark

smooth or rough, fibrous.

smooth at first, later building up in layers.

Branchlets

decussate, 1–1.5 mm diam.

decussate, 0.5–1.3 mm diam.

Leaves

without abaxial gland or sometimes with embedded abaxial gland that does not produce drop of resin, not glaucous.

with conspicuous, pitlike, abaxial gland that produces drop of resin, slightly glaucous.

Pollen cones

3–4 × 1.5–2 mm;

pollen sacs 3–6.

2–3 × 2–2.5 mm;

pollen sacs 3–5.

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, mostly 1–2 cm, silvery, not glaucous;

scales 3–4 pairs, usually covered with resin blisters, umbos often prominent, those of distal scales erect, to 4 mm.

Cupressus goveniana

Cupressus bakeri

Habitat Coastal closed-cone pine forests, especially on sterile soils Mixed evergreen forests
Elevation 60–800 m (200–2600 ft) 1100–2000 m (3600–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CA; OR
[WildflowerSearch map]
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.)

Of conservation concern.

(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
C. arizonica, C. bakeri, C. guadalupensis, C. macnabiana, C. macrocarpa, C. sargentii
C. arizonica, C. goveniana, C. guadalupensis, C. macnabiana, C. macrocarpa, C. sargentii
Synonyms C. abramsiana, C. goveniana var. abramsiana, C. goveniana var. pigmaea, C. pigmaea C. bakeri subsp. matthewsii, C. macnabiana var. bakeri
Name authority Gordon: J. Hort. Soc. London 4: 295. (1849) Jepson: Fl. Calif. 1: 61. (1909)
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