This rare cypress grows to a height of 100
feet (30 meters).
Leaves:
The tiny scaled leaves, which wrap around branchlets, are gray-green
with gland dots that produce a
white resin.
Cones:
0.5 - 0.8", round with 6 or 8 scales and resin blisters. The cones
often remain closed until a wildfire
releases the seeds.
Bark:
The smooth,
red-brown bark becomes peeling and then gray on larger trees.
Where
it grows: This rare cypress grows in a few isolated sites
in
southwest Oregon and northern California. It grows
farther north than any other cypress in North America. The most
northern site is at Flounce Rock, northeast of Medford.
See Cypress Species in Oregon by Frank
Callahan.
Names: Named
after Calfornia plant explorer Milo Baker, who discovered the species
in 1898. The tree is native to the
land of the Modoc people. Other common names: Baker cypress, Siskiyou
cypress. Recently some have proposed removing North American
cypresses from Cupressus
and placing them in a new genus, Hesperocyparis.
Others have argued for keeping North American cypresses in Cupressus. For
more information, see The
Gymnosperm Database.
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