Cupressus macrocarpa (
Monterey Cypress,
Macrocarpa; syn.
Callitropsis macrocarpa (Hartw.) D.P.Little) is a species of
cypressThe Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera with about 130-140 species. They are monoecious, subdioecious or dioecious trees and shrubs from 1-116 m tall...
endemic to the central coast of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near
MontereyThe City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Variants of the city's name are recorded as Monte Rey and Montery. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of 2005, the city population was 30,641...
and
CarmelCarmel-by-the-Sea, usually called simply Carmel, is a small town in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
. These two small populations represent what was once a very large forest on the west coast. The surviving trees from this forest are as old as 2000 years.
These small
Cypress forestA Cypress forest is a western USA plant association typically dominated by one or more cypress species. Example species comprising the canopy include Cupressus macrocarpa. In some cases these forests have been severely damaged by goats, cattle and other grazing animals...
groves are protected, within
Point Lobos State ReservePoint Lobos is the common name for the area including Point Lobos State Reserve and two adjoining marine protected areas: Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area...
and Del Monte Forest.
Cupressus macrocarpa (
Monterey Cypress,
Macrocarpa; syn.
Callitropsis macrocarpa (Hartw.) D.P.Little) is a species of
cypressThe Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera with about 130-140 species. They are monoecious, subdioecious or dioecious trees and shrubs from 1-116 m tall...
endemic to the central coast of
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near
MontereyThe City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Variants of the city's name are recorded as Monte Rey and Montery. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of 2005, the city population was 30,641...
and
CarmelCarmel-by-the-Sea, usually called simply Carmel, is a small town in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated in 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, the town is known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history...
. These two small populations represent what was once a very large forest on the west coast. The surviving trees from this forest are as old as 2000 years.
These small
Cypress forestA Cypress forest is a western USA plant association typically dominated by one or more cypress species. Example species comprising the canopy include Cupressus macrocarpa. In some cases these forests have been severely damaged by goats, cattle and other grazing animals...
groves are protected, within
Point Lobos State ReservePoint Lobos is the common name for the area including Point Lobos State Reserve and two adjoining marine protected areas: Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area...
and Del Monte Forest. The natural habitat is noted for its cool, humid summers, almost constantly bathed by
seaA sea is any large amount of water filled with animals such as crabs, whales, sharks, and fish, but there is inconsistency as to its precise definition and application. Most commonly, a sea may refer to a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, but it is also used sometimes for a...
fogFog is a cloud that is in contact with the ground. A cloud may be considered partly fog; for example, the part of a cloud that is suspended in the air above the ground is not considered fog, whereas the part of the cloud that comes in contact with higher ground is considered fog...
.
It is a medium-sized
evergreenIn botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaves all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
treeA tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
, which often becomes irregular and flat-topped as a result of the strong winds that are typical of its native area. It grows to heights of around 10-25 m, and its trunk diameter reaches 0.6 m, rarely up to 1 m or more. The foliage grows in dense sprays, bright green in color. The
leavesIn botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin. There is continued debate about whether the flatness of leaves evolved to expose the chloroplasts to more light or to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. In...
are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots; seedlings up to a year old have needle-like leaves 4-8 mm long. The seed
conesA cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...
are globose to oblong, 20-40 mm long, with 6-14 scales, green at first, maturing brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The pollen cones are 3-5 mm long, and release their
pollenPollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
in late winter or early spring.
Along with other New World
Cupressus species, it has recently been transferred to the genus
CallitropsisCallitropsis is a genus of cypresses in the family Cupressaceae, with several native to North America and one native to Vietnam in southeast Asia....
, on genetic evidence that the New World
Cupressus are not very closely related to the Old World
Cupressus species.
Cultivation and uses
Monterey Cypress has been widely cultivated away from its native range, both elsewhere along the California coast, and in other areas with similar cool summer, mild winter oceanic climates.
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an distribution includes
Great BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
(including the
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),
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
(including the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
),
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, and
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
. It is also found in western
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, and
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
(where it is
naturalizedIn biology, naturalisation is the process when foreign or cultivated plants or animals have spread into the wild, where they multiply by natural regeneration....
) as an ornamental tree and, occasionally, as a timber tree. It has also been grown experimentally as a timber crop in
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
.
In New Zealand, where it is almost always referred to as Macrocarpa, it is most frequently grown as a shelter tree on farms, usually in rows or shelter belts. There, growing in better conditions than it receives in the wild, it often grows much larger, with trees to over 40 m tall and three m trunk diameter known.
When planted in areas with hot summers (for example interior California away from the coastal fog belt) it has proved highly susceptible to cypress
cankerCanker and anthracnose are general terms for a large number of different plant diseases, characterised by broadly similar symptoms including the appearance of small areas of dead tissue, which grow slowly, often over a period of years. Some are of only minor consequence, but others are ultimately...
, caused by the
fungusA fungus is any member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. The Fungi are classified as a kingdom that is separate from plants, animals and bacteria...
Seiridium cardinale and rarely survives more than a few years. This disease is not a problem where summers are cool.
A number of
cultivarA cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of desired characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when propagated it retains those characteristics....
s have been selected for garden use, including 'Goldcrest', with yellow-green, semi-juvenile foliage (with spreading scale-leaf tips) and 'Lutea' with yellow-green foliage.
Monterey Cypress is one of the parents of the fast growing cultivated hybrid
Leyland CypressThe Leyland Cypress, X Cupressocyparis leylandii , is often referred to as just Leylandii. It is a fast-growing evergreen tree much used in horticulture, primarily for hedges and screens...
, the other parent being Nootka Cypress.
The foliage is slightly toxic to
livestockLivestock are one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food or fiber, or labor...
and can cause miscarriages in cattle.
In New Zealand the timber was used for fence posts before electric fencing became popular. Sawn logs are used, by many craftspeople, some boat builders and small manufacturers, as a furniture structural material and a decorative wood because of its fine colours. It is also a fast, hot burning, albeit sparky (therefore not suited to open fires), firewood.
Cultivars grown in New Zealand
Monterey Cypress
cultivarA cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of desired characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when propagated it retains those characteristics....
s:
- Aurea Saligna—Long cascades of weeping, golden-yellow, thread-like foliage on a pyramidal tree
- Brunniana Aurea—Pillar or conical form with soft rich-golden foliage
- Gold Rocket—Narrow erect form with golden colouring, slow-growing
- Golden Pillar—Compact conical tree with dense yellow shoots and foliage
- Greenstead Magnificent—Dwarf form with blue-green foliage
- Lambertiana Aurea—Hardy upright form tolerating poor soil and climate conditions