Saturday, May 23, 2015

Cupressus sempervirens 'Swain's Golden' - Swain's Golden Italian Cypress

This is a pretty cool vertical conifer with nice golden foliage that shows up here and there in Santa Cruz. Reportedly slow growing to 20' tall and about 3' wide, but taller than the 'Stricta' plants in the photo. Arose as a seedling from 'Stricta' seeds in Australia.



Foliage is yellow or gold early but changes to green over the summer so that only the newest foliage is yellow.



Misidentification:
There are several columnar or fastigiate yellow cypress trees, but this one is not really all gold like the newer cultivars. One new one is a C. macrocarpa 'Golden Pillar'.

Location
Soquel
3600 Sevilla Dr.

Santa Cruz
2560 Soquel Ave, Just to the left of the building, there is a row of them.