Facts about Baker's Cypress (Cupressus bakeri)

Callitropsis bakeri (Jeps.) D.P. Little:
United States (North America)

Little, D. P. 2006. Evolution and circumscription of the true cypresses (Cupressaceae: Cupressus). Syst. Bot. 31(3): 461–480. http://www.tropicos.org/Reference/1030199

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Cupressus bakeri Jeps.:
United States (North America)

Anonymous. 1986. List-Based Rec., Soil Conserv. Serv., U.S.D.A. Database of the U.S.D.A., Beltsville. http://www.tropicos.org/Reference/1103
Flora of North America Editorial Committee, e. 1993. Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms. 2: i–xvi, 1–475. In Fl. N. Amer. Oxford University Press, New York. http://www.tropicos.org/Reference/10884

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Cupressus bakeri subsp. matthewsii C.B. Wolf:
United States (North America)

Munz, P. A. & D. D. Keck. 1959. Cal. Fl. 1–1681. University of California Press, Berkeley. http://www.tropicos.org/Reference/1717

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National Distribution

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Source: NatureServe

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Global Range: Northern California and southern Oregon.

Source: NatureServe

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Morphology

Physical Description

Tree, Evergreen, Monoecious, Habit erect, Trees without or rarely having knees, Primary plant stem smooth, Tree with bark smooth, Tree with bark rough or scaly, Tree with bark shaggy or peeling, Young shoots 3-dimensional, Buds not resinous, Leaves scale-like, Leaves opposite, Non-needle-like leaf margins entire, Leaf apex acute, Leaf apex obtuse, Leaves < 5 cm long, Leaves < 10 cm long, Leaves not blue-green, Outer leaf surface covered with resin, Scale leaves with raised glands, Scale leaf glands ruptured, Scale leaves overlapping, Twigs glabrous, Twigs not viscid, Twigs without peg-like projections or large fascicles after needles fall, Berry-like cones orange, Woody seed cones < 5 cm long, Bracts of seed cone included, Seeds tan, Seeds winged, Seeds equally winged, Seed wings narrower than body.

Stephen C. Meyers

Source: USDA NRCS PLANTS Database

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Description

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.

Flora of North America @ eFloras.org

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Diagnostic Description

Synonym

Cupressus bakeri Jepson subsp. matthewsii C. B. Wolf; C. macnabiana A. Murray bis var. bakeri (Jepson) Jepson

Flora of North America @ eFloras.org

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Habitat

Habitat and Ecology

Systems

Terrestrial

Source: IUCN

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Comments: Occurs on various types of basic igneous rock in the Sierra Nevada and in the Cascades and on serpentine soils in the Siskiyous. Elevational range is from 1050 to over 2000 m - extremely high for cypress. Stands are dependent on fire for their maintenance. The largest stand occurs on recent, dark-colored lava which has been broken into fissures, huge pits, depressions, and rock piles. Alluvial material in the depressions and loamy soil in the spaces between the broken lava provide a place for the trees to grow. Other occurrences consist of isolated clumps in fire-maintained brushfields of greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) and in mixed-conifer and red fir forests.

Source: NatureServe

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Habitat & Distribution

Mixed evergreen forests; of conservation concern; 1100--2000 m; Calif., Oreg.

Flora of North America @ eFloras.org

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Population Biology

Number of Occurrences

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 21 - 80

Comments: Mapped by Little as about ten small areas, some of which might contain more than one distinct element occurrence.

Source: NatureServe

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Molecular Biology

Statistics of barcoding coverage: Hesperocyparis bakeri

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 2
Species: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

Source: Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD)

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Conservation Status

IUCN Red List Assessment

Red List Category

VU

Vulnerable

Red List Criteria

B1+2bcd

Version

2.3

Year Assessed

2000

Assessor/s

Conifer Specialist Group

Reviewer/s

History

1998

Vulnerable

(Oldfield et al. 1998)
1997

Vulnerable

(Walter and Gillett 1998)

Source: IUCN

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National NatureServe Conservation Status

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Source: NatureServe

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NatureServe Conservation Status

Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: 12-15 scattered groves of this cypress are known, ranging from a few isolated trees to a population of thousands spread over several hundred hectares. The long-term viability of these occurrences is threatened by fire suppression.

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Threats

Major Threats

Although fire-adapted, it is vulnerable to intense fires, which break out when the fuel load has built up.

Source: IUCN

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Cupressus bakeri

Cupressus bakeri, the Modoc cypress, Siskiyou cypress or Baker cypress, is a species of cypress native to a small area in the western United States, located in California and Oregon.

Distribution

Cupressus bakeri grows in a restricted area of Northern California: in Siskiyou, Modoc, Shasta, Plumas and Tehama Counties; and in southwest Oregon: very localized in Josephine and Jackson Counties. ^[1]

It is usually found in small, scattered populations, not in large forests, at altitudes of 900–2,000 metres (3,000–6,600 ft). This includes locales in the Modoc Plateau, southern Cascade Range, Klamath Mountains, and northern Sierra Nevada. ^[2] It is slow-growing in the wild, and is mostly restricted to sites difficult for plant growth, on serpentine soils and on old lava flows. Its tolerance of these sites enables it to avoid competition from much faster-growing trees.

Cupressus bakeri trunk and bark of a juvenile tree

Description

Cupressus bakeri is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a conic crown, growing to heights of 10-25 m (exceptionally to 39 m), and a trunk diameter of up to 0.5 m (exceptionally to 1 m). The foliage grows in sparse, very fragrant, usually pendulous sprays, varying from dull gray-green to glaucous blue-green in color. The leaves are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. ^[3]

The seed cones are globose to oblong, covered in warty resin glands, 10-25 mm long, with 6 or 8 (rarely 4 or 10) scales, green to brown at first, maturing gray or gray-brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3-5 mm long, and release pollen in February-March. ^[4]

The cones often remain closed for several years, only opening after the parent tree is killed in a wildfire, thereby allowing the seeds to colonize the bare ground exposed by the natural fire.

Conservation

Fire suppression policies of the past decades have severely limited reproduction of this fire dependent species. It is listed as a vulnerable species. ^[5]

References

^ http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CUBA&mapType=nativity&photoID=cuba_001_avp.tif USDA
^ http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_cpn.pl?21396 Jepson
^ http://www.pinetum.org/PhotoJEFFbakeri.htm pinetum.org: Photos, trees
^ http://www.pinetum.org/cones/CUbakeri.jpg pinetum.org: Photos, cones
^ Conifer Specialist Group (2000). Cupressus bakeri. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. - Listed as Vulnerable (VU B1+2bcd v2.3)

Gymnosperm Database: Cupressus bakeri

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Source: Wikipedia

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