Hesperocyparis goveniana
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'Hesperocyparis goveniana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Callitropsis goveniana (Gordon) D.P.Little
- Cupressus attenuata Gordon & Glend.
- Cupressus bourgeaui Gordon
- Cupressus californica Carrière
- Cupressus goveniana Gordon
- Neocupressus goveniana (Gordon) de Laub.
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
Editorial Note
The text below is from Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles (Bean 1976) where it appeared under the old name Cupressus goveniana. We have moved this text here, unaltered, under the correct modern name with appropriate synonymy, to bring this account in line with modern taxonomic treatments. For an in-depth overview of the studies and ensuing taxonomic changes that prompted this change, see both the Hesperocyparis and Callitropsis genus accounts.
The main text for this and related taxa will be updated when sponsorship is forthcoming; if you would like to support the revision of these accounts please contact the editors.
TC, October 2024.
In the wild a small tree or large shrub, never more than about 25 ft high in its typical state, but taller in cultivation. The branchlets are more slender than in C. macrocarpa, clad with rich green foliage; as in that species they are arranged in four ranks, scale-like and flattened to the branch, but are somewhat smaller. The two species also resemble each other in having non-glandular leaves (cf. C. macnabiana, in which the leaves are pitted with sunken, resin-exuding glands). The cones are smaller than in C. macrocarpa, being 2⁄5 to 3⁄5 in. long, with six to ten scales and more or less globular in shape. Seed ripe in the second year, dark brown to almost black.
var. abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) de Laub.
Common Names
Santa Cruz Cypress
Synonyms
Hesperocyparis abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) Bartel
Callitropsis abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) D.P.Little
Cupressus abramsiana C.B.Wolf
Cupressus goveniana subsp. abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) A.E.Murray
Cupressus goveniana var. abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) Little
Neocupressus goveniana var. abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) de Laub.
Cupressus abramsiana subsp. butanoensis Silba
Cupressus abramsiana subsp. locatellii Silba
Cupressus abramsiana subsp. neolomondensis Silba
Cupressus abramsiana subsp. opleri Silba
Cupressus butanoensis (Silba) Malone & Bisbee
Hesperocyparis abramsiana var. butanoensis (Silba) Bartel & R.P.Adams
Editorial Note
New Trees (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009) treated this taxon as Cupressus goveniana var. abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) Little. When Adams et al. transferred North American Cupressus to Hesperocyparis they made the combination at species rank, as Hesperocyparis abramsiana (C.B.Wolf) Baretl (Adams, Bartel & Price 2009). Approaches to North American cypresses vary considerably, some treating many more at species rank, and others treating them at infraspecific rank, as in this example. Here we follow the approach taken in New Trees and use the combination made available in Hesperocyparis by David de Laubenfels in 2012. See also the editorial note for Hesperocyparis goveniana, above.
TC, October 2024.
Var. abramsiana has larger seed cones than the type variety (2–3 cm diameter, vs. 1.2–1.8 cm), and the seeds are slightly glaucous (vs. dark brown or black). Watson & Eckenwalder 1993, Farjon 2005c. Distribution USA: California (Santa Cruz Mts.). Habitat Mixed pine-oak forest on white sands at about 530 m asl. USDA Hardiness Zone 7. Conservation status Endangered. Illustration NT298. Cross-references B803, S201, K103.
This taxon is reduced to some 5200 trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where although the direct threat posed by housing development is staved off somewhat by protection for the trees, a more insidious threat to regeneration is caused by the alteration to fire regimes imposed by building. Without fires to open the cones, and freshly exposed soil in which seeds can germinate, regeneration will be minimal (Center for Plant Conservation 2007–2008).
The Santa Cruz Cypress is scarce in cultivation but there are some notable specimens. The UK champion (25.8 m in 2000) is at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, grown from seed received in 1950 (Bean 1976a, Clarke 1988), and there is a magnificent individual of 20 m or more in the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, with widely spreading limbs, from a 1975 collection. Even in less balmy climates it is fast-growing: at Howick, specimens from W&H 362 and W&H 364, collected in 1986, are up to 12 m tall and are at risk of blowing over, having grown too well (C. Howick, pers. comm. 2005). These are densely columnar specimens, but vary slightly in their ‘tidiness’.
From Bean’s Trees and Shrubs:
A small bushy tree of conical habit found in a few localities in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California. It is intermediate between C. sargentii and C. goveniana in its botanical characters, but nearer to the latter, which it resembles in its bright, rich green foliage. The cones, however, are larger than in that species (over {3/5} in. long) and the seeds dull brown and glaucous.
