Cupressus sempervirens

Species of conifer

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|

Mediterranean cypress

Mediterranean cypress foliage and cones

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Plantae
Clade:  | Tracheophytes
Clade:  | Gymnospermae
Division:  | Pinophyta
Class:  | Pinopsida
Order:  | Cupressales
Family:  | Cupressaceae
Genus:  | Cupressus
Species:  |

C. sempervirens

Binomial name
Cupressus sempervirens

Green: probable natural range in the Mediterranean Basin
Orange: range including human introductions
Red (small areas): Residual natural stands

Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress,[1] Tuscan cypress, Persian cypress, or pencil pine), is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Iran. While some studies show it has modern medicinal properties, it is most noted for uses in folk medicine, where the dried leaves of the plant are used for a variety of ailments.[2] It is well adapted to the conditions and the environment that it lives in due to the ability to survive in both acidic and alkaline soils, and withstand drought.[3] Cupressus sempervirens is widely present in culture, most notably in Iran, where it is both a sacred tree and is a metaphor for "the graceful figure of the beloved".[4]

## Description

[edit]

Cupressus sempervirens is a medium-sized coniferous evergreen tree up to 35 m (115 ft) tall, with a conic crown with level branches and variably loosely hanging branchlets.[5] It is very long-lived, with some trees reported to be over 1,000 years old.[6]

The foliage grows in dense sprays, which are dark green in colour. The leaves are scale-like, 2–5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed cones are ovoid or oblong, 25–40 mm long, with 10–14 scales, which are green at first, and mature to brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, and release pollen in late winter. The cones of C. sempervirens can withstand years of being sealed.[7] It is moderately susceptible to cypress canker, caused by the fungus Seiridium cardinale, and can suffer extensive dieback where this disease is common. The species name sempervirens comes from the Latin for 'evergreen'.[8]

Cupressis sempervirens produces lateral shoots, or branches, which often grow upwards towards a light source.[9] Cones of C. sempervirens can remain sealed for long periods of time, and are known to perform serotiny.[7]

## Uses

[edit]

Mediterranean cypress has been widely cultivated as an ornamental tree for millennia outside of its native range, mainly throughout the whole Mediterranean region, and in other areas with similar hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters, including California, southwest South Africa, and southern Australia. It can also be grown successfully in areas with cooler, moister summers, such as the British Isles, New Zealand, and the Pacific Northwest. It is also planted in Florida and parts of the coastal southern United States as an ornamental tree. In some areas, particularly the United States, it is known as "Italian" or "Tuscan cypress". Within its native range, the Mediterranean cypress has been historically planted in gardens and cemeteries, and used as a windbreak alongside roads.[10]

4000-year-old Cypress of Abarkuh, Iran

The vast majority of the trees in cultivation are selected cultivars with a fastigiate crown, with erect branches forming a narrow to very narrow crown often less than a tenth as wide as the tree is tall. The dark green "exclamation mark" shape of these trees is a highly characteristic signature of Mediterranean town and village landscapes.

In cosmetics it is used as astringent, firming, anti-seborrheic, anti-dandruff, anti-aging and as fragrance.[11] It is also the traditional wood used for Italian harpsichords.[12]

Cone dispersal with seeds of Cupressus sempervirens

The dry seeds that come from the Cupressus sempervirens are sometimes used to help people control their skin conditions such as acne, and are of use in healing cuts or scrapes.[2] The oil that comes from the leaves of the plant can aid in recovery from minor ailments like nose congestion.[2] It can also prevent damage to land caused by violent weather.[13]

## Habitats

[edit]

Cupressus sempervirens grows primarily in places with wet winters and hot summers; in the spring and autumn, the tree grows out its roots, stems, and leaves.[3] Like most plants, Cupressus sempervirens requires light for such growth.[6] Due to the fact that the tree must survive wet winters and hot, dry summers, its roots are adapted to be stout and shallow, for easier gathering of the material and nutrients that the soil provides for them.[3] The roots of Cupressus sempervirens are adapted to function effortlessly in either low or high pH environments.[2]

## In culture

[edit]

### Iran

[edit]

Stylized Cypress Trees from Persepolis, Shiraz, Iran. One of the three varieties of C. sempervirens native to Iran is called the Shirazi Cypress.

In Persian, C. sempervirens is called the "Graceful Cypress" (sarv-e nāz), and has a distinguished presence in culture, poetry and gardens. It bears several metaphors, including the "graceful figure and stately gait of [the] beloved".[4] Iranians considered cypress to be a relic of Zoroaster. A Zoroastrian tradition recorded by Daqiqi maintains that King Vishtaspa, after converting to Zoroastrianism, ordered a cypress brought from paradise by Zoroaster to be planted near the first fire temple.[4]

The oldest living cypress is the Sarv-e-Abarkooh in Iran's Yazd Province. Its age is estimated to be approximately 4,000 years.[14][failed verification]

### Symbolism

[edit]

In classical antiquity, the cypress was a symbol of mourning, and in the modern era it remains the principal cemetery tree in both the Muslim world and Europe. In the classical tradition, the cypress was associated with death and the underworld because it failed to regenerate when cut back too severely. Athenian households in mourning were garlanded with boughs of cypress.[15] Cypress was used to fumigate the air during cremations.[16] It was among the plants that were suitable for making wreaths to adorn statues of Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld.[17]

The poet Ovid, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, records the best-known myth that explains the association of the cypress with grief. The handsome boy Cyparissus, a favorite of Apollo, accidentally killed a beloved tame stag. His grief and remorse were so inconsolable that he asked to weep forever. He was transformed into a cypress tree, with the tree's sap as his tears.[18] In another version of the story, it was the woodland god Silvanus who was the divine companion of Cyparissus and accidentally killed the stag. When the boy was consumed by grief, Silvanus turned him into a tree, and thereafter carried a branch of cypress as a symbol of mourning.[19]

In Jewish tradition, the cypress was held to be the wood used to build Noah's Ark and The Temple, and is mentioned as an idiom or metaphor in biblical passages, either referencing the tree's shape as an example of uprightness or its evergreen nature as an example of eternal beauty or health. The tree features highly in classical Aramaic writings.[20]

In popular culture the Italian cypress is often stereotypically associated with vacation destinations to the Mediterranean region; Italy in particular. The tree has been seen on travel posters for decades.[21][22]

* Isle of the Dead (1883) by Arnold Böcklin. Third version in a series of five.

* Cypresses (1889) by Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Other van Gogh cypress paintings include Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night.

* Fastigiate Mediterranean cypress C. sempervirens 'Stricta', planted in Hawaii.

## Other characteristics

[edit]

In July 2012, a forest fire, lasting five days, devastated 20,000 hectares of forest in the Valencian village of Andilla. However, amid the charred landscape, a group of 946 cypress trees about 22 years old was virtually unharmed, and only 12 cypresses were burned. Andilla cypresses were planted by the CypFire European project studying various aspects of the cypresses, including fire resistance.[23]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
2. ^ a b c d Selim, Samy A; Adam, Mohammed E; Hassan, Sherif M; Albalawi, Abdulrhman R (December 2014). "Chemical composition, antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity of the essential oil and methanol extract of the Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.)". BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 14 (1): 179. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-179. ISSN 1472-6882. PMC 4052795. PMID 24890383.
3. ^ a b c "Supporting EFSA assessment of the EU environmental suitability for exotic forestry pests: Final Report". EFSA Supporting Publications. 11 (3). March 2014. doi:10.2903/sp.efsa.2014.en-434. ISSN 2397-8325.
4. ^ a b c Aʿlam, Hūšang (2020-08-30), "CYPRESS", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, Brill, retrieved 2023-10-30
5. ^ See also Uses section for the differing cultivated variants
6. ^ a b Mauri, Achille; Girardello, Marco; Strona, Giovanni; Beck, Pieter S. A.; Forzieri, Giovanni; Caudullo, Giovanni; Manca, Federica; Cescatti, Alessandro (2022-02-03). "EU-Trees4F, a dataset on the future distribution of European tree species". Scientific Data. 9 (1): 37. Bibcode:2022NatSD...9...37M. doi:10.1038/s41597-022-01128-5. ISSN 2052-4463. PMC 8813948. PMID 35115529.
7. ^ a b "Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean cypress) description". www.conifers.org. Retrieved 2023-10-17.
8. ^ Rojas-Sandova, J (2022-01-07). Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean cypress) (Report). doi:10.1079/cabicompendium.17105.
9. ^ Weick, Cynthia Wagner; Aamir, Naela; Reichart, Jayme (June 2023). "The Ethnobotanical Evolution of the Mediterranean Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)". Economic Botany. 77 (2): 203–221. doi:10.1007/s12231-023-09570-1. ISSN 0013-0001. S2CID 257968346.
10. ^ Caudullo, G; de Rigo, D. (2016). "Cupressus sempervirens in Europe: distribution, habitat, usage and threats" (PDF). European Atlas of Forest Tree Species.
11. ^ Carrasco, F. (2009). "Ingredientes Cosméticos". Diccionario de Ingredientes\ 4ª Ed. www.imagenpersonal.net. p. 267\. ISBN 978-84-613-4979-1.
12. ^ Hubbard, Frank (1965). Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making. Harvard University Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-674-88845-6.
13. ^ Orhan, Ilkay Erdogan; Tumen, Ibrahim (2015), "Potential of Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean Cypress) in Health", The Mediterranean Diet, Elsevier: 639–647, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-407849-9.00057-9, ISBN 978-0-12-407849-9, PMC 7149725
14. ^ Craig Glenday, ed. (2011). Guinness World Records. BANTAM DELL. p. 95. ISBN 9781904994671.
15. ^ Servius, note to Vergil's Aeneid 3.680.
16. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 17.7.34.
17. ^ Natalis Comes, Mythologiae 2.9.
18. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.106ff.
19. ^ Servius, note to Vergil's Georgics 1.20.
20. ^ Aramaic Targum of Song of Solomon 1:17, Quote: “Solomon, the prophet, said: ‘How beautiful is the Temple of the Lord that was built by me from cedar trees! But how much more beautiful shall be the Temple that will be built in the future in the days of the King Messiah, whose rafters shall be taken from the cedars of the Garden of Eden, and whose joists shall be taken from cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens), firs and junipers’...”
21. ^ "Image: Italian_Lakes,_travel_poster_for_ENIT,_ca._1930.jpg, (3091 × 5015 px)". upload.wikimedia.org. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
22. ^ "Image: 01422-2T.jpg, (300 × 453 px)". postercorner.com. Archived from the original on 2015-02-22. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
23. ^ "The curious case of Valencia's flameproof cypresses". sociedad.elpais.com. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 2015-09-06.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Farjon, A. 2013 Cupressus sempervirens. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2
* Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-068-4.
* Zsolt Debreczy, Istvan Racz (2012). Kathy Musial (ed.). Conifers Around the World (1st ed.). DendroPress. p. 1089\. ISBN 978-9632190617.
* Panconesi, A. 2007 The cypress from myth to future. [Italian] 456 p. Ed. Centro Promozione Pubblicità, ISBN 9788888228204

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cupressus sempervirens.

* Cupressus sempervirens—information, genetic conservation units and related resources from the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN)

* v
* t
* e

Extant Cupressaceae species

Subfamily Athrotaxidoideae|

| Athrotaxis|

* A. cupressoides
* A. selaginoides
* A. laxifolia

|

Subfamily Callitroideae|

| Actinostrobus|

* A. acuminatus
* A. arenarius
* A. pyramidalis

|

Austrocedrus|

* A. chilensis

Callitris|

* C. baileyi
* C. canescens
* C. columellaris
* C. drummondii
* C. endlicheri
* C. macleayana
* C. monticola
* C. muelleri
* C. neocaledonica
* C. oblonga
* C. preissii
* C. rhomboidea
* C. roei
* C. sulcata
* C. verrucosa

Diselma|

* D. archeri

Fitzroya|

* F. cupressoides

Libocedrus|

* L. austrocaledonicus
* L. bidwillii
* L. chevalieri
* L. plumosa
* L. yateensis

Neocallitropsis|

* N. pancheri

Papuacedrus|

* P. papuana

Pilgerodendron|

* P. uviferum

Widdringtonia|

* W. cedarbergensis
* W. nodiflora
* W. schwarzii
* W. whytei

Subfamily Cunninghamioideae|

| Cunninghamia|

* C. konishii
* C. lanceolata

|

Subfamily Cupressoideae|

| Callitropsis|

* C. nootkatensis

|

Calocedrus|

* C. decurrens
* C. formosana
* C. macrolepis
* C. rupestris

Chamaecyparis|

* C. formosensis
* C. lawsoniana
* C. obtusa
* C. pisifera
* C. taiwanensis
* C. thyoides

Cupressus|

* C. atlantica
* C. austrotibetica
* C. cashmeriana
* C. chengiana
* C. duclouxiana
* C. dupreziana
* C. funebris
* C. gigantea
* C. sempervirens
* C. tonkinensis
* C. torulosa
* C. vietnamensis

Hesperocyparis|

* H. abramsiana
* H. arizonica
* H. bakeri
* H. benthamii
* H. forbesii
* H. glabra
* H. goveniana
* H. guadalupensis
* H. lusitanica
* H. macnabiana
* H. macrocarpa
* H. montana
* H. nevadensis
* H. pygmaea
* H. revealiana
* H. sargentii
* H. stephensonii

Fokienia|

* F. hodginsii

Juniperus|

| Section Juniperus|

* J. brevifolia
* J. cedrus
* J. communis
* J. conferta
* J. drupacea
* J. formosana
* J. lutchuensis
* J. macrocarpa
* J. oxycedrus
* J. rigida

|

Section Sabina|

Old World Species:

* J. chinensis
* J. convallium
* J. excelsa
* J. foetidissima
* J. indica
* J. komarovii
* J. phoenicea
* J. pingii
* J. procera
* J. procumbens
* J. pseudosabina
* J. recurva
* J. sabina
* J. saltuaria
* J. semiglobosa
* J. squamata
* J. thurifera
* J. tibetica
* J. wallichiana

New World Species:

* J. angosturana
* J. ashei
* J. arizonica
* J. barbadensis
* J. bermudiana
* J. blancoi
* J. californica
* J. coahuilensis
* J. comitana
* J. deppeana
* J. durangensis
* J. flaccida
* J. gamboana
* J. horizontalis
* J. jaliscana
* J. monosperma
* J. monticola
* J. occidentalis
* J. osteosperma
* J. pinchotii
* J. saltillensis
* J. scopulorum
* J. standleyi
* J. virginiana
* J. zanonii

Microbiota|

* M. decussata

Platycladus|

* P. orientalis

Tetraclinis|

* T. articulata

Thuja|

* T. koraiensis
* T. occidentalis
* T. plicata
* T. standishii
* T. sutchuenensis

Thujopsis|

* T. dolabrata

Xanthocyparis|

* X. vietnamensis

Subfamily Sequoioideae|

| Metasequoia|

* M. glyptostroboides

|

Sequoia|

* S. sempervirens

Sequoiadendron|

* S. giganteum

Subfamily Taiwanioideae|

| Taiwania|

* T. cryptomerioides

|

Subfamily Taxodioideae|

| Cryptomeria|

* C. japonica

|

Glyptostrobus|

* G. pensilis

Taxodium|

* T. ascendens
* T. distichum
* T. mucronatum

Taxon identifiers

Cupressus sempervirens|

* Wikidata: Q147513
* Wikispecies: Cupressus sempervirens
* APDB: 130995
* APNI: 116778
* ARKive: cupressus-sempervirens
* Calflora: 9316
* CoL: 32FXZ
* Conifers.org: Cupressus_sempervirens
* Ecocrop: 5050
* EoL: 1034869
* EPPO: CVBSE
* Euro+Med PlantBase: c052f05d-e301-4871-a611-f3130154de50
* FloraBase: 44794
* FNA: 200005421
* FoAO2: Cupressus sempervirens
* FoC: 200005421
* FoIO: CUPSEM
* GBIF: 2684030
* GRIN: 12665
* IFPNI: 070FC0C2-0972-4D20-B3C8-0C6C465C5055
* iNaturalist: 64261
* IPNI: 261974-1
* IRMNG: 10591045
* ISC: 17105
* ITIS: 183456
* IUCN: 32518
* MoBotPF: 279588
* NBN: NBNSYS0000042098
* NCBI: 13469
* NZOR: f341dfc0-3824-4380-a7bf-1ec2980f3aab
* NZPCN: 3713
* Observation.org: 144010
* Open Tree of Life: 949938
* PalDat: Cupressus_sempervirens
* PFI: 167
* Plant List: kew-2748781
* PLANTS: CUSE2
* POWO: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:261974-1
* RHS: 5079
* Tropicos: 9400073
* VicFlora: dcfd2399-5114-4d6b-aa9d-996c19117b18
* WoI: 317
* WFO: wfo-0000630789

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST

National|

* Germany
* Israel
* United States

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[A]: Austrocedrus
*[C]: Cryptomeria
*[D]: Diselma
*[F]: Fokienia
*[L]: Libocedrus
*[N]: Neocallitropsis
*[P]: Platycladus
*[W]: Widdringtonia
*[H]: Hesperocyparis
*[J]: Juniperus
*[M]: Metasequoia
*[T]: Taxodium
*[X]: Xanthocyparis
*[S]: Sequoiadendron
*[G]: Glyptostrobus