Common Names
MacNab cypress (1).Taxonomic notes
"In the inner north Coast Ranges C. macnabiana and C. sargentii produce the only known natural hybrids in Cupressus (Lawrence et al. 1975)" (3).Description
"Shrubby trees to 12 m; crown broadly conical, dense. Bark rough, furrowed, fibrous. Branchlets comblike, 0.5-1 mm diam. Leaves with conspicuous, pitlike, abaxial gland that produces drop of resin, sometimes glaucous. Pollen cones 2-3 × 2 mm; pollen sacs 3-5. Seed cones globose, mostly 1.5-2.5 cm, brown or gray, not glaucous; scales 3-4 pairs, smooth except for erect conic umbos, 2-4 mm. Seeds 2-5 mm, light to medium brown, sometimes slightly glaucous" (3)."Among all the true Cypresses of North America this one is unique in having flattened branchlets always lying all in one plane, to form a 'spray' ... instead of bristling all around the twig as in most other species of Cupressus " (5).
Range
USA: California at 300-850 m in chaparral and foothill woodland, often on serpentine (3). "Irregularly scattered on the west slopes of the Sierra Nevada (Aukum in Amador County, Grass Valley in Nevada County at about 2500 feet; Texas Hill and Indiana Creek in Yuba County) and, in the north-central part of California at Whiskeytown, Shasta County and the Betty May Mine, Trinity County; thence south in the inner northern Coast Ranges at Hough Springs and Reiff in Lake County, and at Aetna Springs, Napa County; also near Ukiah in Mendocino County" (5). See also (6).Big Tree
Height 17 m, dbh 125 cm, crown spread 14 m; in Amador County, CA (2).Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Vladimir Dinets (e-mail, 11-Aug-99) reports that it can be found on the roadside of Hwy 299, about 400 m east of the Whiskeytown turnoff, at the western end of the part of the highway that crosses a bay of Whiskeytown Lake.Remarks
Citations
(1) Elias 1987 .(2) American Forests 1996 .
(3) James E. Eckenwalder at the Flora of North America web site .
(4) Herbarium data for all California species are accessible via the CalFlora Database .
(5) Peattie 1950 .
(6) Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson and Patrick J. Bartlein. 1999. Atlas of Relations Between Climatic Parameters and Distributions of Important Trees and Shrubs in North America. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1650 A&B. URL= http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/ppapers/p1650-a/pages/conifers.html, accessed 22-Jan-2000.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/cu/cup/macnabiana.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:
earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 22-Jan-2000