Hesperocyparis abramsiana

Santa cruz cypress

Family: Cupressaceae · Type: tree · Native

Santa cruz cypress is a rare California native tree found in the central coast ranges in mixed evergreen forest and chaparral at elevations between 300 to 1,200 meters. Growing as an evergreen tree 6 to 10 meters tall with distinctive bark that breaks into thick vertical strips of gray-brown, its branches are slender and cylindrical. Its foliage is a light bright to deep green, with branches approximately one millimeter in diameter. The tree produces small pollen cones about 3 to 4 millimeters long and seed cones 16 to 30 millimeters wide that are spheric to widely elliptic and brown. Its seeds are 3 to 5 millimeters long, typically dull brown to iridescent black with a conspicuous attachment scar.

California counties: Santa Cruz, San Mateo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.