Sargent Cypress

Trees to 25 m, but often shrubby and less than 10 m; crown broader than tall or columnar, dense or open. Bark rough, furrowed, fibrous. Branchlets decussate, (1.5--)2--2.5 mm diam. Leaves usually with inconspicuous, shallow, pitlike, abaxial gland that usually does not produce drop of resin, often glaucous. Pollen cones mostly 3--4 ´ 2 mm; pollen sacs 3--4. Seed cones usually globose, mostly 2--2.5 cm, brown or gray, not glaucous; scales mostly 3--4 pairs, with scattered resin blisters, umbos inconspicuous or to 4 mm. Seeds 4--6 mm, dark brown, faintly to prominently glaucous.

Calif.

Chaparral, foothill woodland, and lower montane forests, on serpentine; 200--1100m.

Cupressus sargentii Jepson var. duttonii Jepson

Cupressus sargentii is a California endemic conifer found in elevations from 200 to 1000 meters, with a bioregional distribution that consists of the North Coast Ranges, San Francisco Bay Area and South Coast Ranges. The species has a high affinity for serpentine soils and is usually found in the following plant communities: Sargent cypress woodland, closed-cone-pine/cypress, yellow-pine forests, chaparral.

Sargent Cypress woodlands are a recognized plant community, which occur in coastal portions of Mendocino, Sonoma, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties as well as portions of the San Francisco Bay region. The Cedars in Sonoma County is an example of a Sargent Cypress coastal site. In more protected inland locales this woodland type may extend into a riparian zone where summer fogs persist. Grey Pine (Pinus sabiniana) may occur with Sargent Cypress in northern California. Leather Oak (Quercus durata) is often a dominant shrub in Sargent cypress woodland, also having ultramafic affinity.

Sargent cypress typically attains a height of ten to twenty meters. Its trunk bark is fibrous, thick, gray or dark brown to almost black. The young shoots are four-sided and cylindric and measure 1.5 to 2.0 mm in diameter. Leaves are dull, dusty green to grayish green. Pollen cones are three to four mm long and two mm in diameter. Spheric shaped seed cones are 15 to 30 mm in size, and display rough-surfaces; these seed cones are dull brown to gray, with six to ten scales having inconspicuous projections. The dark brown seeds are five to six mm long and generally glaucous.

Tree, Shrub, Evergreen, Monoecious, Habit erect, Trees without or rarely having knees, Tree with bark rough or scaly, Young shoots 3-dimensional, Buds not resinous, Leaves scale-like, Leaves opposite, Non-needle-like leaf margins entire, Leaf apex acute, Leaf apex obtuse, Leaves < 5 cm long, Leaves < 10 cm long, Leaves yellow-green above, Leaves not blue-green, Scale leaves with raised glands, Scale leaves without raised glands, Scale leaf glands not ruptured, Scale leaves overlapping, Twigs glabrous, Twigs not viscid, Twigs without peg-like projections or large fascicles after needles fall, Berry-like cones orange, Woody seed cones < 5 cm long, Bracts of seed cone included, Seeds brown, Seeds winged, Seeds equally winged, Seed wings narrower than body.

Cupressus sargentii is a species of conifer in the family Cupressaceae known by the common name Sargent's cypress. It is endemic to California, where it is known from Mendocino County southwards to Santa Barbara County. This taxon is limited to the Coast Range mountains. It grows in forests with other conifers, as well as chaparral and other local mountain habitat, usually in pure stands on serpentine soils. It generally grows 10 to 15 meters (33–50 feet) tall, but it is known to exceed 22 meters (73 feet). On Carson Ridge in Marin County, as well as Hood Mountain in Sonoma County, the species comprises a pygmy forest of trees which do not attain heights greater than 240–360 cm (8–12 feet) due to high mineral concentrations in the serpentine soil.

One notable population occurs in the Cedar Mountain Ridge area of Eastern Alameda County. According to Carl Wolf, who extensively studied the New World Cypress in the 1930s and 1940s, seed from the Cedar Mountain stand of Cupressus sargentii produced the most vigorous seedlings.

Like many of the New World Cupressaceae, Sargent Cypress usually reproduces with the aid of wildfire, which cause an opening of the cones and exposure of bare mineral soil for seedling germination, though occasionally seeds will fall and germinate without fire, though such seems to be the exception rather than the rule. It is often the case that many trees in a particular stand will all be the same age, so that a sort of stratification occurs of different colonies all of the same age. Sargent Cypress can begin producing cones as early as five or six years of age.