Hesperocyparis pygmaea
Credits
New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
Recommended citation
'Hesperocyparis pygmaea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Callitropsis pygmaea (Lemmon) D.P.Little
- Cupressus goveniana subsp. pygmaea (Lemmon) Bartel
- Cupressus goveniana var. pigmaea Lemmon
- Cupressus pygmaea (Lemmon) Sarg.
- Hesperocyparis goveniana var. pygmaea (Lemmon) de Laub.
- Neocupressus goveniana var. pygmaea (Lemmon) de Laub.
- Cupressus silbae B.Huang bis
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 pygmaea within Bean’s article on C. goveniana (now Hesperocyparis 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.
This variety is misleadingly named, being dwarf only on sterile soils; in favoured situations it develops a leading shoot and may attain a height of over 100 ft. The foliage is dull, dark green. Seeds lustrous black to dull brown.C. goveniana is a very local species in the wild, found in the same part of Monterey Co. as the more famous C. macrocarpa, but farther inland. It was introduced from this locality by Hartweg in 1846. Var. pygmaea occurs much farther to the north, in Mendocino Co.H. J. Elwes remarked (The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland) that C. goveniana appeared to be a short-lived tree; at that time (1910) it was represented in cultivation by specimens 40–50 ft high, some of them already going back; whether any of these remain today is doubtful – the researches of A. F. Mitchell have so far revealed none in Britain. At the present time all of the finest specimens of C. goveniana in this country are to be found at Wakehurst Place, Sussex, where there are altogether some twenty-five specimens, sixteen of which are over 50 ft high. The tallest is a narrowly columnar tree of 72 × 5{1/4} ft and there is one of similar habit almost as tall; another with a broad bushy crown is 63 × 7{1/2} ft (1964). Other tall specimens grow at Bagshot Park, Surrey, and Woburn Abbey, Beds. There is a fine specimen in the R.H.S. Garden, Wisley, about 40 ft high.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
var. pygmaea – Lemmon actually adopted the spelling pigmaea and this has to be accepted. Sargent altered it to the more correct pygmaea when raising the variety to species rank.