Callitropsis nootkatensis

Callitropsis nootkatensis, formerly known as Cupressus nootkatensis (syn. Xanthocyparis nootkatensis, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis), is a species of tree in the cypress family native to the coastal regions of northwestern North America. This species goes by many common names including: Nootka cypress, yellow cypress, Alaska cypress, Nootka cedar, yellow cedar, Alaska cedar, and Alaska yellow cedar. The specific epithet nootkatensis is derived from its discovery by Europeans on the lands of a First Nation of Canada, the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, who were formerly referred to as the Nootka. Callitropsis nootkatensis is an evergreen conifer growing up to tall, exceptionally , with diameters up to . The bark is thin, smooth and purplish when young, turning flaky and gray. The branches are commonly pendulous, with foliage in flat sprays and dark green scale-leaves measuring long. The cones, maturing biannually, have 4 (occasionally 6) scales, and resemble the cones of Cupressus lusitanica (another species which can show foliage in flat sprays), except being somewhat smaller, typically in diameter; each scale has a pointed triangular bract about 1.5–2 mm long, again similar to other Cupressus and unlike the crescent-shaped, non-pointed bract on the scales of Chamaecyparis cones. The winged seeds are small, thus dispersing at a close range; additionally, only a small percentage is viable. The Caren Range on the west coast of British Columbia is home to the oldest Nootka cypress specimens in the world, with one specimen found to be 1,834 years old; some specimens may be over 3,000 years old. Callitropsis nootkatensis is one of the parents of the hybrid Leyland cypress; the other parent, Monterey cypress (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa), was also considered to be in the genus Cupressus, but in the North American Hesperocyparis clade, which has generally been found to be phylogenetically closer to C. nootkatensis than the Old World clade Cupressus sensu stricto.

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Related concepts (4)

Thuja plicata

Thuja plicata is a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Cupressaceae, native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. Its common name is western redcedar in the U.S. or western red cedar in the UK, and it is also called pacific red cedar, giant arborvitae, western arborvitae, just cedar, giant cedar, or shinglewood. It is not a true cedar of the genus Cedrus. T. plicata is the largest species in the genus Thuja, growing up to tall and in diameter.

Cupressaceae

Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress family, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red- brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Juniperus (dʒuːˈnɪpərəs ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa, throughout parts of western, central and southern Asia, east to eastern Tibet in the Old World, and in the mountains of Central America. The highest-known juniper forest occurs at an altitude of in southeastern Tibet and the northern Himalayas, creating one of the highest tree lines on earth.