Characteristics:
Common name: Arizona cypress, Blue cypress
Family: Cupressaceae
Origin: North America
Mature height: 10 to 15 meters
Hardiness: -20 ° C and more
Exposure: sunny, partial shade, shade
Plant type: ornamental tree
Vegetation: perennial
Foliage: persistent
Flowering: end of winter
Flower color: yellow, ocher
Soil type: any type
Watering: normal
Use: isolated, hedge, container
Diseases and pests: seridium cardinale, armillaria mellea, cinara cupressi
Toxicity: –
Seed conservation: 2 years in a dry place protected from light at 3/4 ° C (refrigerator)
Description:
The Arizona cypress is an evergreen, medium-sized tree, the silhouette of which offers a slender, pyramidal, dense habit with ascending branches when it is young, opening with age. The crown is rounded. It can reach a height of 10 to 15 meters for a trunk of 60 centimeters.
The foliage is evergreen of a bluish green and glaucous with an aromatic odor. The small, pointed leaves are short, oval and glandular. The flowers appear at the end of winter and are located at the end of the branches. They are oblong male châtons with a pale yellow to yellow ocher color. The female catkins are globular, bluish verdigris, gathered in clusters at the top of the young shoots.
The fruits are strobiles (strobile: fruit in the shape of a caterpillar) of 2 to 3cm and are covered with bluish gray polygonal scales, they turn to greyish brown when ripe.
Cupressus arizonica supports all soils but it prefers calcareous soils.
This tree is considered an endangered species and is on the red list of the IUCN – International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
