Hesperocyparis bakeri
Modoc, Baker or Siskiyou cypress (Peattie 1950). Subsp. matthewsi, if recognized, is the Siskiyou cypress.
Synonymy: see POWO (accessed 2023.12.16). Wolf (1948) segregated the groves in the Siskiyou Mountains and the Goosenest Mountain stand as ssp. matthewsii. Wolf did not know about the Prospect, Elk Creek, or Plumas County populations, in the context of which the former groves appear substantially less isolated (Griffin and Critchfield 1972). Little (1970) asserts that "the characters in the key (p. 72-73 [Wolf 1948]) seem scarcely sufficient for division of the species into 2 varieties."
"Trees to 30 m; crown broadly columnar, sparse. Bark smooth at first, later building up in layers. Branchlets decussate, 0.5-1.3 mm diam. Leaves with conspicuous, pitlike, abaxial gland that produces drop of resin, slightly glaucous. Pollen cones 2-3 × 2-2.5 mm; pollen sacs 3-5. Seed cones globose, mostly 1-2 cm, silvery, not glaucous; scales 3-4 pairs, usually covered with resin blisters, umbos often prominent, those of distal scales erect, to 4 mm. Seeds mostly 3-4 mm, light tan to medium brown, not glaucous to slightly glaucous" (Eckenwalder 1993).
USA: Oregon and California at 1100-2000 m elevation in mixed evergreen forests (Peattie 1950, Eckenwalder 1993). See also Thompson et al. (1999). As with other California cypresses, it is segregated into discrete stands separated, in most cases, by fairly long distances, and usually presumed to represent discrete populations. A largely-complete inventory of the stands is given below in "Observations."
Data from USGS (1999).
"The Sierra Nevada-Cascade stands are on various types of basic igneous rock. In contrast, the cypresses in the Siskiyou Mountains tend to grow on or near serpentine soils" (Griffin and Critchfield 1972). At the largest known stand, the Timbered Crater site in Siskiyou County, California, the trees occur on lava beds in "a remarkably thrifty looking forest of Pinus ponderosa, P. attenuata, Juniperus occidentalis and Libocedrus decurrens" (Wolf 1948).
Hardy to Zone 7 (cold hardiness limit between -17.7°C and -12.2°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).
The largest tree on record is height 39 m, dbh 104 cm, crown spread 9 m, in Rogue River National Forest, OR (American Forests 2000).
No data as of 2023.12.16.
The following inventory of stands provides listings from south to north. Numbers correspond to listings on the map above. Not all sites on the map are numbered; only those for which I have information.
The largest Baker cypress population, at Timbered Crater, was discovered in 1998 by Milo S. Baker in 1898. In 1909, Jepson described Baker cypress as a new species from Baker's specimen, naming the species in his honor (Griffin and Critchfield 1972).
American Forests 2000. The National Register of Big Trees 2000. Washington, DC: American Forests.
Bartel 2009: described in Adams, R. P., J. A. Bartel and R. A. Price. 2009. A new genus, Hesperocyparis, for the cypresses of the western hemisphere. Phytologia 91(1):160-185.
Jepson, W. L. 1909. A Flora of California, Vol. I, p. 61. http://www.cupressus.net/CUbakeriJepson.html, courtesy of the Cupressus Conservation Project website.
The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.
Wolf (1948), Lanner (1999) and Farjon (2005) each provide a detailed account, with illustrations.
Last Modified 2023-12-17