Lawson Cypress
Origin: a
native of the mountains of NW California and SW Oregon between 4000 and 6000ft.
It was introduced to Britain in 1854 and seeds were grown by Lawson seed
merchants of Edinburgh. It is now abundant in towns and suburban gardens and
parks in a vast array of cultivars. According to Alan Mitchell, no Lawson in
Britain has yet stopped growing!
Tree: the shape is cone-like with a drooping leading shoot. The trunk can be
multi-branched.
Bark: the bark is shiny, purplish-brown in colour and with age becomes
vertically fissured into long plates.
Leaf: the leaf is scale-like and, typically, rather dark-green above with a pale
translucent gland in the centre of the median leaves (hold leaf up to the light
- you may need a handlens).
The underside of the leaf (middle photo left) has narrow white edging to the
joints between the scales.
However, with over 200 cultivars, leaf colour can vary from green, through
yellow to blue! The crushed leaves give off a resinous, some say, parsley-like
aroma.
Flowers and fruit: most trees bear abundant flowers. The male are very small,
crimson-tipped and are found at the tips of the finest branches. After shedding
pollen in spring, they wither and fall off. The female flowers are slate blue at
first ca. 5mm diameter, turning green before opening as woody cones (lower
photo).
Uses: It is a valuable tree for shelter belts and screening and is a popular
nesting and roosting site for birds such as Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch.