''Hesperocyparis sargentii'' is a species of

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

in the family

Cupressaceae Cupressaceae or the cypress family is a family of conifers. 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) dioecio ...

known by the common name Sargent's cypress. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where it is known from

Mendocino County Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza") is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United S ...

southwards to

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, officially the County of Santa Barbara (), is a county located in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa M ...

. This taxon is limited to the Coast Range mountains. It grows in

forests A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological functio ...

with other conifers, as well as

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

and other local mountain habitat, usually in pure stands on serpentine soils. It generally grows tall, but it is known to exceed . On Carson Ridge in Marin County, as well as

Hood Mountain Mount Hood, also known as Hood Mountain, is a mountain near the southeastern edge of Santa Rosa, California, at the northeast of the Sonoma Valley and attains a height of . The original name was Mount Wilikos, an Indian name meaning "willows. ...

Sonoma County Sonoma County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 488,863. Its seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...

, the species comprises a pygmy forest of trees which do not attain heights greater than due to high mineral concentrations in the serpentine soil.Biohere, Hood Mountain Park
/ref> One notable population occurs in the Cedar Mountain Ridge area of Eastern

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...

. According to Carl Wolf, who extensively studied the New World Cypress in the 1930s and 1940s, seed from the Cedar Mountain stand of ''Cupressus sargentii'' produced the most vigorous seedlings. Like many of the New World

, Sargent cypress usually reproduces with the aid of wildfire, which cause an opening of the cones and exposure of bare mineral soil for seedling germination, though occasionally seeds will fall and germinate without fire, though such seems to be the exception rather than the rule. It is often the case that many trees in a particular stand will all be the same age, so that a sort of stratification occurs of different colonies all of the same age. Sargent cypress can begin producing cones as early as five or six years of age.

Taxonomy

''Hesperocyparis sargentii'' was scientifically described by the botanist Willis Linn Jepson in 1909 and given the name ''Cupressus sargentii''. He found the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

in the Mayacamas Mountains in northern California. Jepson also identified a variety of the species, var. ''duttonii'', in 1923, but this has not become widely accepted. For almost 100 year the status of the species was not disturbed until in 2006 the first of several proposals to move it to, ''Callitropsis'' alongside ''

Callitropsis nootkatensis ''Callitropsis nootkatensis'', formerly known as ''Cupressus nootkatensis'' (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Xanthocyparis nootkatensis, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis''), is a species of tree in the Cupressaceae, cypress family native to the coastal regio ...

''. Further research lead to two proposals to move it to a new genus for new world species of cypress, ''Neocupressus'' and '' Hesperocyparis''. ''Hesperocyparis sargentii'' is considered to be the correct classification by

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

World Flora Online World Flora Online is an Internet-based compendium of the world's plant species. Description The World Flora Online (WFO) is an open-access database, launched in October 2012 as a follow-up project to The Plant List, with the aim of publishi ...

, and the USDA

Natural Resources Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...

PLANTS database.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment of ''Cupressus sargentii''USDA Plants Profile for ''Cupressus sargentii''Flora of North AmericaUC CalPhotos gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q288373 sargentii Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Trees of Northern America Los Padres National Forest Plants described in 1909 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Taxonomy

References

Further reading

External links