Chamaecyparis pisifera

Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress or Sawara Japanese: サワラ, romanized: Sawara) is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū.[2][1]

Chamaecyparis pisifera
Chamaecyparis pisifera
Morton Arboretum acc. 745-27*4
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Cupressaceae
Genus: Chamaecyparis
Species:
C. pisifera
Binomial name
Chamaecyparis pisifera

It is a slow-growing coniferous tree growing to 35–50 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m in diameter. The bark is red-brown, vertically fissured and with a stringy texture. The foliage is arranged in flat sprays; adult leaves are scale-like, 1.5–2 mm long, with pointed tips (unlike the blunt tips of the leaves of the related Chamaecyparis obtusa (hinoki cypress), green above, green below with a white stomatal band at the base of each scale-leaf; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs on the shoots. The juvenile leaves, found on young seedlings, are needle-like, 4–8 mm long, soft and glaucous bluish-green. The cones are globose, 4–8 mm diameter, with 6–10 scales arranged in opposite pairs, maturing in autumn about 7–8 months after pollination.[2]

The Latin specific epithet pisifera, “pea-bearing”, refers to the small round green cones.[3]

A related cypress found on Taiwan, Chamaecyparis formosensis (Formosan cypress), differs in longer ovoid cones 6–10 mm long with 10–16 scales.[2] The extinct Eocene species Chamaecyparis eureka, known from fossils found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada, is noted to be very similar to C. pisifera.[4]

Uses

It is grown for its timber in Japan, where it is used as a material for building palaces, temples, shrines and baths, and making coffins, though less valued than the timber of C. obtusa. The wood is lemon-scented and light-colored with a rich, straight grain, and is rot resistant.[5]

It is also a popular ornamental tree in parks and gardens, both in Japan and elsewhere in temperate climates including western Europe and parts of North America. A large number of cultivars have been selected for garden planting, including dwarf forms, forms with yellow or blue-green leaves, and forms retaining the juvenile needle-like foliage; particularly popular juvenile foliage cultivars include 'Plumosa', 'Squarrosa' and 'Boulevard'.[5]

In cultivation in the UK the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit[6] (confirmed 2017):[7]

  • ‘Boulevard’:[8] 8 m (26 ft), blue-green foliage
  • ‘Filifera Aurea’:[9] rounded, needle-like golden foliage, to 12 m (39 ft)
  • ‘Plumosa Compressa’:[10] dwarf to 90 cm (35 in), soft mossy foliage on young plants
  • ‘Sungold’:[11] rounded shrub to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall and wide, with needle-like lime green foliage
  • Grove of 80-year-old trees
  • Foliage and cones
  • Central trunk of a tree
  • Bark
  • Bonsai example
  • Foliage of the juvenile cultivar 'Boulevard', with soft feathery needle-like leaves
  • Cultivar 'Golden Charm'
  • Cultivar 'Filifera aurea'
  • Leaves of the Filifera aurea
  • Cultivar 'Sungold'

References
  1. Conifer Specialist Group (1998). "Chamaecyparis pisifera". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1998. Retrieved 12 May 2006.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-068-4
  3. Harrison, Lorraine (2012). RHS Latin for Gardeners. United Kingdom: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 978-1845337315.
  4. Kotyk, M.E.A.; Basinger, J.F.; McIlver, E.E. (2003). "Early Tertiary Chamaecyparis Spach from Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian High Arctic". Canadian Journal of Botany. 81 (2): 113–130. doi:10.1139/B03-007.
  5. Dallimore, W., & Jackson, A. B. (1966). A Handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae 4th ed. Arnold.
  6. "RHS Plantfinder -". Missing or empty |url= (help)
  7. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 16. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  8. "RHS Plantfinder - Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard'". Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  9. "RHS Plantfinder - Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera Aurea'". Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  10. "RHS Plantfinder - Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Plumosa Compressa'". Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  11. "RHS Plantfinder - Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Sungold'". Retrieved 30 January 2018.
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