Trees of Stanford
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Cupressus L.
Cupressus funebris (Chamaecyparis funebris). FUNERAL CYPRESS. China

These are the distinctive trees with weeping, scale-like foliage on the edge of the Arizona Garden as shown on the location map. It has small-cones (.3 to .5 inches in diameter), with long, slender pendulous branchlets, somewhat flattened, two-ranked. There are a four, closely spaced trees, crowded and shaded by oaks and other species, just south (Campus Drive side) of the garden and in other locations in the Arboretum (a seemingly healthy, uncrowded individual is near Torrey Pine #2 in the field east of the Stanford Arboretum Children's Center). One of the finest specimens has a double-trunk and grows near the pedestrian path on the north side of Palm Drive near its intersection with Arboretum Rd. It too is being crowded by an oak. Another is shown on the Cantor Center Tree Map.

There is an 1896 voucher in the Dudley Herbarium, including cones (collected by Doris Okerman, Folder 5, item # 69303). Vouchers were also collected by Alice Eastwood in 1913 and John Thomas in the 1950s. C. funebris was mentioned in "From avocados to zelkovas: A sampler of Stanford trees." Campus Report, Nov. 14, 1984. [N.B. 1.87M. printed full size this PDF is 23" wide x 18" high] and is listed in the Heritage Tree Report.

LeRoy Abrams lists these trees in his 1913 inventory of campus gymnosperms, along with another interesting cypress, C. torulosa, found in the company of C. funebris in the Cactus Garden area. He reports William Dudley noted the trees in his 1909 list. Abrams, L.R. 1913. "The Gymnosperms Growing on the Grounds of Stanford University." Dudley Memorial Volume of Leland Stanford Junior University Publications University Series. Also vailable online in . http://site.ebrary.com/lib/stanford/Doc?id=10046034 to licensing institutions.

Cupressus funebris location map | entry in Trees.Stanford.edu

Cupressus torulosa. HIMALAYAN CYPRESS. China, Himalayan Mountains

There is a handsome individual on the northwest side of the Cactus Garden and one among the Funeral Cypress on the garden's southern side. Like the Funeral Cypress it has small cones, usu less than ½ inch in diameter, but can be differentiated from its neighbors by its taller, single-trunked, broadly pyramidal form, and by its branchlets which are in three-dimensional clusters (not flat sprays). The thicker, more fibrous bark also distinguishes it from C. funebris.

Cupressus torulosa (habit, photo taken from Cactus Garden looking west) | Cupressus torulosa location map | entry in Trees.Stanford.edu

References