× Cuprocyparis notabilis
Credits
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'× Cuprocyparis notabilis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
- × Cuprocyparis
- Cupressus arizonica var. glabra × Xanthocyparis nootkatensis
Common Names
- Alice Holt Cypress
- Noble Cypress
Synonyms
- × Cupressocyparis notabilis A.F. Mitchell
Tree to 20 m or more. Bark reddish brown to purple, scaly or flaky with patches of several different colours adjacent to each other. Crown conical, broader and more open than in ×C. leylandii. Major branches ascending. Foliage branches flattened, pendulous, yellowish green with brown tinge, later becoming violet. Leaves blue-green with slight greyish bloom, decussate, imbricate, apex acute. Male strobili terminal, solitary, ovoid, yellowish. Seed cones globose, 12–18 mm diameter, cone blue-green with whitish bloom, ripening to dark brown, persistent after seed dispersal. Seed scales in two to four decussate pairs, valvate. Farjon 2005c. Distribution Only in cultivation. USDA Hardiness Zone 6 (?). Illustration NT302. Cross-references S198, K101.
The hybrid tree ×Cuprocyparis notabilis resulted from a chance cross in the 1950s between Cupressus arizonica var. glabra and Xanthocyparis nootkatensis at Leighton Hall, Powys, where its older half-sibling ×Cuprocyparis leylandii had appeared previously. Fortunately it is less common than this latter, as it also forms a tall shaggy column with pendulous shoots. A redeeming feature is the attractive mottled bark inherited from its mother. There are specimens of 15 m and over in several UK arboreta, the champion recognised by TROBI being a specimen at Westonbirt of 22 m in 2001. Another very fine tree at Wakehurst Place that has not been measured recently must, however, be almost as tall as this.
