Sawara-Cypress

Description

Chamaecyparis pisifera (sawara cypress or sawara Japanese: --- Sawara) is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honsh- and Ky-sh-.It is a slow-growing coniferous tree growing to 35-50 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m in diameter. The bark is red-brown, vertically fissured and with a stringy texture. The foliage is arranged in flat sprays; adult leaves are scale-like, 1.5-2 mm long, with pointed tips (unlike the blunt tips of the leaves of the related Chamaecyparis obtusa (hinoki cypress), green above, green below with a white stomatal band at the base of each scale-leaf; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs on the shoots. The juvenile leaves, found on young seedlings, are needle-like, 4-8 mm long, soft and glaucous bluish-green. The cones are globose, 4-8 mm diameter, with 6-10 scales arranged in opposite pairs, maturing in autumn about 7-8 months after pollination.A related cypress found on Taiwan, Chamaecyparis formosensis (Formosan cypress), differs in longer ovoid cones 6-10 mm long with 10-16 scales. The extinct Eocene species Chamaecyparis eureka, known from fossils found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada, is noted to be very similar to C. pisifera.[