Mediterranean cypress

Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress, 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 to treat various ailments. It is well-adapted to the environmental conditions that it lives in due to its ability to survive in both acidic and alkaline soils and withstand drought. Cupressus sempervirens is widely present in culture, most notably in Iran, where it is both a sacred tree and a metaphor for "the graceful figure of the beloved".

Description

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

Cupressis sempervirens produces lateral shoots, or branches, which often grow upwards towards a light source. The foliage grows in dense, dark green sprays. The leaves are scale-like, 2–5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed cones are ovoid or oblong and 25–40 mm long. The cones have 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 and are known to perform serotiny. The tree 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'.

Uses

C. sempervirens has been widely cultivated as an ornamental tree for millennia outside of its native range, mainly throughout the 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, C. sempervirens has historically been planted in gardens and cemeteries and used as a windbreak alongside roads. The tree can also prevent damage to land caused by violent weather.

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 an astringent, for firming, as an anti-seborrheic, for anti-dandruff, for anti-aging and as a fragrance. It is also the traditional wood used for Italian harpsichords.

Dried seeds of Cupressus sempervirens are sometimes used to help people control skin conditions such as acne and to heal cuts or scrapes. The oil from the leaves of the plant can aid in recovery from minor ailments like nose congestion.

Habitats

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. Like most plants, Cupressus sempervirens requires light for such growth. Because the tree must survive wet winters and hot, dry summers, its roots are adapted to be stout and shallow for easier gathering of the nutrients in the soil. The roots of Cupressus sempervirens are adapted to function in both acidic and alkaline soils.

In culture

Iran

In Persian, C. sempervirens is called the "Graceful Cypress" (sarv-e nāz), and has a strong presence in culture, poetry and gardens. It bears several metaphors, including the "graceful figure and stately gait of [the] beloved". 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.

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

Symbolism

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. Cypress was used to fumigate the air during cremations. It was among the plants that were suitable for making wreaths to adorn statues of Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld.

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. 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.

In Jewish tradition, cypress is held to be the wood used to build Noah's Ark and Solomon's 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 in classical Aramaic writings.

In popular culture, C. sempervirens is often stereotypically associated with vacation destinations in the Mediterranean region, especially Italy. The tree has been seen on travel posters for decades.

Other characteristics

In July 2012, a forest fire lasting five days burned 20,000 hectares of forest in the Valencian village of Andilla. However, a group of 946 cypress trees about 22 years old was virtually unharmed, and only 12 cypresses were burned. The Andilla cypresses had been planted by the CypFire European project to study various aspects of the cypresses, including fire resistance.

References

Further reading

• 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

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