''Cupressus forbesii'', now reclassified by some as ''Hesperocyparis forbesii'', Calflora: ''Hesperocyparis forbesii''
/ref> and with the common names Tecate cypress or Forbes' cypress, is a species of cypress native to southwestern North America.

Distribution

''Cupressus forbesii'' is native to montane chaparral and woodlands

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s in the western Peninsular Ranges. It grows at elevations of . The tree is found only in the

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside c ...

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

and in

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

within

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, and in northern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

state of Mexico.Jepson Manual (TJM93)
/ref> The northernmost stand, in Orange County, which comprises a large area on the upper limits of Coal Canyon and on Sierra Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains, burned in a 2006

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

. Very few mature trees survived but regeneration is occurring by the hundreds to thousands. However another wildfire before trees are able to reach cone-producing age, which can be quite old for this species, could extirpate the stand.

Description

''Cupressus forbesii'' reaches , and is usually without dominant terminal shoot resulting in a multi-trunked

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

. The foliage ranges from rich light green to green, and

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are dark brown, measuring 20–32 mm.

Taxonomy

''Cupressus forbesii'' has in the past been referred to as ''Cupressus guadalupensis'' var. ''forbesii''. This taxonomy has been somewhat controversial, as morphology and molecular testing have both shown ''

Cupressus guadalupensis ''Cupressus guadalupensis'', the Guadalupe cypress, is a species of cypress from Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean off western North America. Distribution The Guadalupe cypress, ''Cupressus guadalupensis'', is endemic to Mexico, found only ...

'' to be genetically distinct enough from ''Cupressus forbesii'' to warrant being placed in its own species. ''Cupressus guadalupensis'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Guadalupe Island Guadalupe Island ( es, Isla Guadalupe, link=no) is a volcanic island located off the western coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula and about southwest of the city of Ensenada in the state of Baja California, in the Pacific Ocean. The ...

off Baja California, two hundred fifty miles away from any ''C. forbesii'' stands. Molecular testing has shown ''Cupressus guadalupensis'' to be slightly more closely related to ''

Cupressus stephensonii ''Cupressus stephensonii'' is a species of conifer known as the Cuyamaca cypress, and is endemic to Southern California. It has been classified as ''Hesperocyparis stephensonii''. It was previously listed as ''Cupressus arizonica'' subsp. ''steph ...

''. Major differences between Tecate cypress (''Cupressus forbesii'') and Guadalupe cypress (''Cupressus guadalupensis'') are: *Guadalupe cypress, when mature, makes a much more massive and taller tree than Tecate cypress. *Guadalupe cypress has glaucous, somewhat blue-tinted foliage, while Tecate cypress has very green foliage. *Guadalupe cypress cones will open without fire, while Tecate cypress cones differ from any other species of California Cypress, in that even once disconnected from the parent tree, they will not open without heat.

Ecology

The Tecate cypress is the only

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

on which the rare Thorne's Hairstreak (''Callophrys gryneus thornei'') lays its

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s.Lee, M
Rare Otay butterfly doesn't make 'endangered' list.
''

San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

'' February 22, 2011.

Cultivation

''Cupressus forbesii'' has proven to be a successful specimen

, tolerant of the climate of

Coastal California Coastal California, also known as the California Coastline and the Golden Coast, refers to the coastal regions of the U.S. state of California. The term is not primarily geographical as it also describes an area distinguished by cultural, economic ...

, and its cool temperatures and humidity, where other inland-growing

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

: such as ''Cupressus macnabiana'' have done poorly in these conditions. A Tecate Cypress planted at the

San Francisco Botanical Garden The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (formerly Strybing Arboretum) is located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Its 55 acres (22.3 ha) represents nearly 9,000 different kinds of plants from around the world, with p ...

is showing vigor and produces viable

at forty years of age.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Hesperocyparis forbesii'' (Tecate cypress)
— ''current classification''.
Jepson eFlora (TJM2) treatment for ''Hesperocyparis forbesii''''Cupressus forbesii''/''Hesperocyparis forbesii'' — U.C. Photos Gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5194571 forbesii Flora of California Trees of Baja California Trees of the Southwestern United States Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Peninsular Ranges Natural history of San Diego County, California San Ysidro Mountains Plants described in 1922 Taxa named by Willis Linn Jepson Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant trees Ornamental trees