Hesperocyparis macnabiana
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Hesperocyparis macnabiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Callitropsis macnabiana (A.Murray bis) D.P.Little
- Cupressus macnabiana A.Murray bis
- Neocupressus macnabiana (A.Murray bis) de Laub.
- Cupressus glandulosa Hook. ex Gordon & Glend.
- Cupressus nabiana Mast.
- Juniperus macnabiana P.Lawson ex Gordon & Glend.
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 macnabiana. 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.
A shrub or small bushy tree to 30 or 40 ft high; bark greyish, furrowed and fibrous. Branchlet systems forming flat sprays (though not constantly so), the ultimate divisions very slender and 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long. Leaves dark grey green, about 1⁄20 in. long, scale-like, thick, convex and blunt, with a conspicuous resinpit on the back. Cones short-stalked, globose, about 3⁄4 in. across, rather glaucous at first, becoming brown or grey, scales usually six, rarely eight, those at the apex developing thickened, horn-like crests, those at the base with thin, recurved bosses. Seeds brown.
Native of California; discovered by Jeffrey in the Sierra Nevada in 1853, introduced by W. Murray the following year for Lawson’s nursery, Edinburgh. It is now very rare in this country, and although apparently one of the hardiest of the true cypresses, appears to be short-lived under cultivation. It is one of the most easily recognised of a difficult group, first, by the resin-pit at the back of the leaf (quite conspicuous under the lens); second, by the prominent hornlike development on the upper scales of the cone. The foliage has a very pleasant aromatic fragrance.
This cypress has remained rare in gardens. There is an example at Wakehurst Place, Sussex, measuring 33 × 41⁄2 ft at 11⁄2 ft (1965), and others of about the same size in Eire at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly; and at Mount Usher and Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
specimens: Bells Wood, Bayford, Herts., 66 × 4 ft (1985); Wakehurst Place, Sussex, in The Oaks, 50 × 23⁄4 ft (1978); Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Eire, 53 × 41⁄4 ft (1985); National Botanic Garden, Glasnevin, Eire, 42 × 31⁄2 ft (1980).