photograph
Foliage from a tree in the Sacramento Capitol Arboretum [C.J. Earle].		Cupressus funebris Endlicher

Common Names

Chinese weeping cypress.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Chamaecyparis funebris (Endl.) Franco. However, it is currently regarded as a Cupressus species, with typical two-year cone maturation and resin composition similar to other Asiatic species of Cupressus (1). It is closely related to C. torulosa and C. cashmeriana, which also bear foliage in a flat single-plane.

Description

Trees to 20(35) m high. Bark smooth, brown. Branches more or less horizontal or directed upwards; branchlets pendulous. Shoots 2-ranked, flattened in a single plane. Leaves appressed, with outward pointed apices, uniform in colour, light green or gray green, 2-3 mm long, lateral and facial leaves almost of the same length, 1 small gland on each facial leaf. Juvenile foliage, often long-retained in cultivation (1), soft blue-green leaves 4-7 mm long in whorls of 2 or 4. Cones globose, 8-12 mm thick, dark-brown, on short petioles; 8 scales to a cone, 3-5 seeds to each scale (2, 5).

Range

Southern and central China (1) & Vietnam. USDA hardiness zone 8.

Big Tree

Have no data on wild trees. A specimen 119 cm dbh and 34 m tall at the Villa Vigoni, Lombardia, Menaggio, CO is the largest known in Italy (4).

Oldest

Planted trees said to be 800 years old grow at Black Dragon Pool Mountain Temple near Kunming, Yunnan, China (3).

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Listed (as Chamaecyparis funebris) as threatened in Vietnam by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Citations

(1) Rushforth 1987.
(2) Vidakovic 1991.
(3) International Dendrology Society. Year Book 1995.
(4) CORPO FORESTALE DELLA STATO, a listing of big trees in Italy.
(5) M.P. Frankis, personal observations communicated 3-Feb-1999.

This page co-edited with M.P. Frankis, Feb-1999.

[Chamaecyparis] [Cupressaceae] [home]

This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/cu/cup/funebris.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 5-Feb-1999

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