Chamaecyparis lawsoniana

Appearance

It is a large evergreen tree, maturing up to 197 ft tall or more, with trunks 4–7 ft in diameter, with feathery foliage in flat sprays, usually somewhat glaucous in color. The leaves are scale-like, 1⁄8–3⁄16 inch long, with narrow white markings on the underside, and produced on somewhat flattened shoots. The foliage gives off a rather pungent scent, not unlike parsley. The seed cones are globose, 9⁄32–9⁄16 inch diameter, with 6-10 scales, green at first, maturing brown in early fall, 6–8 months after pollination. The male cones are 1⁄8–5⁄32 inch long, dark red, turning brown after pollen release in early spring. The bark is reddish-brown, and fibrous to scaly in vertical strips.

Naming

It was first discovered near Port Orford in Oregon and introduced into cultivation in 1854, by collectors working for Charles Lawson FRSE of the Lawson & Son nursery in Edinburgh, Scotland, after whom it was named as Lawson Cypress by the describing botanist Andrew Murray. The USDA officially calls it by the name Port Orford cedar, as do most people in its native area, but some botanists prefer to use the name Lawson cypress instead. The name "Lawson's cypress" is widely used in horticulture.

Evolution

It was first discovered near Port Orford in Oregon and introduced into cultivation in 1854, by collectors working for Charles Lawson FRSE of the Lawson & Son nursery in Edinburgh, Scotland, after whom it was named as Lawson Cypress by the describing botanist Andrew Murray. The USDA officially calls it by the name Port Orford cedar, as do most people in its native area, but some botanists prefer to use the name Lawson cypress instead. The name "Lawson's cypress" is widely used in horticulture.The extinct Eocene species ''Chamaecyparis eureka'', known from fossils found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada, is noted to be very similar to ''Chamaecyparis pisifera'' and ''C. lawsoniana''.