''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' commonly known as Californian cypress and Gowen cypress, is a species of

western cypress ''Hesperocyparis'' (western cypress) is a genus of trees in the family Cupressaceae, containing North American species otherwise assigned to the genus ''Cupressus''. They are found throughout western North America. Only a few species have wide ra ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to a small area of coastal

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

near

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

. It was formerly classified as ''Cupressus goveniana''.

Distribution

The tree is endemic to the

Monterey Peninsula The Monterey Peninsula anchors the northern portion on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California and comprises the cities of Monterey, California, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, California, P ...

in coastal

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...

, located on the

Central Coast of California The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populat ...

, in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

. The tree is found in small, scattered populations, and not in large forests of its species. ''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' occurs with ''

Hesperocyparis macrocarpa ''Hesperocyparis macrocarpa'' also known as ''Cupressus macrocarpa'', or the Monterey cypress is a coniferous tree, and is one of several species of cypress trees native to California. The Monterey cypress is found naturally only on the Centra ...

'' (Monterey cypress), in the two groves where the Monterey cypress occurs naturally, in Monterey County. Outside of California, ''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' has been introduced to

Robinson Crusoe Island Robinson Crusoe Island (, ) is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the more populous of the inhabit ...

in Chile. It is on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

Description

''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

with a conic to ovoid-conic crown, very variable in size, with mature trees of under on some sites, to tall in ideal conditions. The

foliage A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, f ...

grows in dense sprays, dark green to somewhat yellow-green in color. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are scale-like, long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed

cones In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the ''apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, ...

are globose to oblong, long, with 6 to 10 scales, green at first, maturing brown or gray-brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The cones remain closed for many years, only opening after the parent tree is killed in a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

, thereby allowing the

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s to colonize the bare ground exposed by the fire. The male cones are long, and release pollen in February/March. Typically cones of ''H. goveniana'' are smaller than those of ''H. macrocarpa''.

Taxonomy

''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' was first described and given the scientific name ''Cupressus goveniana'' by George Gordon in 1849. It was described from a specimen grown in the gardens of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

from seed collected by

Karl Theodor Hartweg Karl Theodor Hartweg (18 June 1812 – 3 February 1871) was a German botanist. He collected numerous new species of plants in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and California in the United States, collecting for the London Horticultural Society ...

. It was named by Gordon for the then secretary of the society,

James Robert Gowen James Robert Gowen (1784–1862) was an amateur English botanist and horticulturist, who was secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) from 1845 to 1850, treasurer until 1855, a landowner in the Wairau Valley in 1848, was still paying rate ...

. In 2009 genetic research into the relationships of ''

Cupressus ''Cupressus'' (common name cypress) is one of several genus, genera of evergreen conifers within the Family (biology), family Cupressaceae; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a Polyphyly, polyphyletic group. Based on genetic and morpho ...

'' and ''

Juniperus Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

'' lead to the reclassification of almost all the new world species into a new genus, ''

Hesperocyparis ''Hesperocyparis'' (western cypress) is a genus of trees in the family Cupressaceae, containing North American species otherwise assigned to the genus ''Cupressus''. They are found throughout western North America. Only a few species have wide ra ...

'' by Jim A. Bartel. This move has been disputed, but as of 2024

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

(POWO),

World Flora Online World Flora Online is an Internet-based compendium of the world's plant species. Description The World Flora Online (WFO) is an open-access database, launched in October 2012 as a follow-up project to The Plant List, with the aim of publishi ...

(WFO), and the USDA

Natural Resources Conservation Service Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and ...

PLANTS database (PLANTS) all list ''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' as the correct name. The

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

, formerly included under ''Cupressus goveniana'' include: *''Cupressus goveniana'' var. ''goveniana'' — reclassified as ''Hesperocyparis goveniana''. :

, strictly coastal, within of the coast and below altitude. Foliage dark green, not rough, with leaf tips not spreading; cones globose. *''Cupressus goveniana'' var. ''pigmaea'', reclassified as ''

Hesperocyparis pygmaea ''Hesperocyparis pygmaea'', the Mendocino cypress or pygmy cypress, is a taxon of disputed status in the western cypress genus. It is endemic (ecology), endemic to certain coastal terraces and coastal mountain ranges of Mendocino County, Californ ...

'' — Mendocino cypress (vulnerable species). : Mendocino and Sonoma counties, coastal, within of the coast and below altitude. *''Cupressus goveniana'' var. ''abramsiana'', reclassified as ''

Hesperocyparis abramsiana The Santa Cruz cypress (''Hesperocyparis abramsiana''; formerly classified as ''Cupressus abramsiana'') is a species of North American tree within the Cupressaceae, cypress family. The species is endemic to the Santa Cruz Mountains within the San ...

'' — Santa Cruz cypress (endangered species). : Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...

inland and at altitude. With yellow–green foliage slightly rough-textured from the acute and slightly spreading leaf tips; cones often oval.Gymnosperm Database: ''C. goveniana'' var. ''abramsiana'' (''Hesperocyparis abramsiana'')
/ref>

References

External links

Jepson Manual eFlora treatment of ''Hesperocyparis goveniana''CalFlora Database: ''Hesperocyparis goveniana'' (Gowen cypress)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q32856054 goveniana Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of Monterey County, California Trees of Northern America Plants described in 1849