Cupressus corneyana

Knight & Perry ex Carr. (1855)

Common names

None designated.

Taxonomic notes

Neotype: Leroy s.n., 1859 (P01637180). C. corneyana was described by Carrière in 1855 based on a young plant he grew from seed provided by the English horticultural firm of Knight and Perry, who named and listed this species in 1847. This species is currently known only from 5 cultivated specimens in Europe, seemingly derived from a single plant imported from an unknown location; the type is one of the earliest specimens extant (Maerki 2025). Synonyms include Cupressus torulosa var. corneyana (Knight & Perry ex Carr.) Carr., C. pendula Griff. C. himalaica Silba, C cashmeriana subsp. himalaica (Silba) Silba, and C. torulosa subsp. himalaica (Silba) Silba. Only the first of these was ascribed to one of the cultivated plants now recognized as C. corneyana; the others seem to have been based upon misidentification of wild materials.

Maerki (2025) does a fine job of untangling the long history of misinformation on this species, which in the past has seen the epithet corneyana ascribed to all eastern Himalyan cypresses bearing pendulous foliage (C. bhutanica, C. cashmeriana, and C. torulosa). He also provides numerical data and a great many photographs clearly establishing this as a taxon distinct from all other Himalayan cypresses, and assigning it species rank. Molecular and ecological studies will be needed to establish its phylogenetic relationship to other Himalayan cypresses; these have not yet been done.

Description

Of the published descriptions, the most complete is probably that of Parlatore (1868); his Latin diagnosis is here translated: Monoecious trees with primary branches and branchlets smooth, elongate, pendulous; secondary branchlets alternate, open, sub-distichous, elongate, slender. Leaves covering the branchlets, compressed, tetragonous, decussate, green, adnate-decurrent, ovate-acuminate, mucronate-subpungent, flat, a dorsally convex and oblong-linear gland barely or not barely noticeable, apex free. Pollen cones on longish erect peduncles, oval or oblong, obtuse, bracts quadrilaterally imbricate, ovate-orbicular, apex acute, margin entire, dorsum convex, anthers 3-4. Seed cones 2-3 at the base of the branchlets, subsessile, very shortly erect, oval subglobose, chestnut in color, glaucous above the mucron of the scales, scales quadrilaterally opposed, subequal, peltate, orbicular-angulate, the apical mucro broad, short, acute and subpungent. Gordon (1862) described the seed cones as "globular, mostly solitary, half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and generally composed of ten scales in opposite pairs; scales irregularly shield-shaped, four or five-sided, and rising in the centre to a broad point." Maerki (2025) compares C. corneyana to C. bhutanica and finds 60-72 seeds per cone and 5-7 seeds per scale in C. corneyana, vs. 104-120 and 9-11 for C. bhutanica. He also finds C. corneyana cones have a mean length of 16 mm, a mean diameter of 13 mm, and a mean length:diameter ratio of 1.2:1.

Distribution and Ecology

Unknown and possibly extinct in the wild. There is no record of the species being collected in habitat and it is known only from 5 trees that are all thought to be descended from a single tree grown from seed by Carrière in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. These 5 trees are now at undisclosed locations in France, Italy and Switzerland, and are being vegetatively propagated to produce more plants; the existing trees have not successfully been reproduced from seed, perhaps because they are selfing (Maerki 2025).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-01-28.

Ethnobotany

The only known use is as an ornamental, and that is limited to the 5 known trees in Europe.

Observations

Currently the locations of the extant trees are undisclosed.

Remarks

The epithet honors a Chinese businessman known only as Mr. Corney, who periodically supplied plants to the Chelsea firm of Knight and Perry (Elwes and Henry 1910). It is possible that he sent the material from which C. corneyana was grown, but really, nothing is known of the plants' wild provenance.

Citations

Carrière, E. A. 1855. Traité Général des Coniféres. Publ. by author. Paris. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.08.30.

Maerki, Didier. 2025. Cupressus corneyana rediscovered. Bulletin of the Cupressus Conservation Project 14(1):3-56, accessed 2025.08.30.

Parlatore, F. 1868. Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis, sive, Enumeratio contracta ordinum generum specierumque plantarum huc usque cognitarium, juxta methodi naturalis, normas digesta, V.16, p.470. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.08.30.

See also

Gordon, George. 1862. A Supplement to Gordon's Pinetum. London: Henry G. Bohn. P.23-24. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.08.30.

Elwes, H.J. and A. Henry. 1910. The trees of Great Britain and Ireland V. Edinburgh: Privately printed (p.1159). Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.08.30.