Cupressus sempervirens

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Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress,<ref name=BSBI07>Template:BSBI 2007</ref> Tuscan cypress, Persian cypress, or pencil pine), is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Iran. While some studies show it has modern medicinal properties, it is most noted for uses in folk medicine, where the dried leaves of the plant are used to treat various ailments.<ref name=sas>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is well-adapted to the environmental conditions that it lives in due to its ability to survive in both acidic and alkaline soils and withstand drought.<ref name=EFSA>Template:Cite journal</ref> Cupressus sempervirens is widely present in culture, most notably in Iran, where it is both a sacred tree and a metaphor for "the graceful figure of the beloved".<ref name="Aʿlam-2020">Template:Citation</ref>

DescriptionEdit

Cupressus sempervirens is a medium-sized coniferous evergreen tree growing up to 35 m (115 ft) tall, with a conic crown with level branches and variably loosely hanging branchlets.<ref>See also Uses section for the differing cultivated variants</ref> It is very long-lived, with some trees reported to be over 1,000 years old.<ref name="EU-Trees4F">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Cupressis sempervirens produces lateral shoots, or branches, which often grow upwards towards a light source.<ref name="Weick-Aamir-Reichart">Template:Cite journal</ref> The foliage grows in dense, dark green sprays. The leaves are scale-like, 2–5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed cones are ovoid or oblong and 25–40 mm long. The cones have 10–14 scales, which are green at first and mature to brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3–5 mm long and release highly allergenic pollen in late winter. The cones of C. sempervirens can withstand years of being sealed and are known to perform serotiny.<ref name=conifers>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The tree is moderately susceptible to cypress canker, caused by the fungus Seiridium cardinale, and can suffer extensive dieback where this disease is common. The species name sempervirens comes from the Latin for 'evergreen'.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

UsesEdit

C. sempervirens has been widely cultivated as an ornamental tree for millennia outside of its native range, mainly throughout the Mediterranean region and in other areas with similar hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters, including California, southwest South Africa, and southern Australia. It can also be grown successfully in areas with cooler, moister summers, such as the British Isles, New Zealand, and the Pacific Northwest. It is also planted in Florida and parts of the coastal southern United States as an ornamental tree. In some areas, particularly the United States, it is known as "Italian" or "Tuscan cypress". Within its native range, C. sempervirens has historically been planted in gardens and cemeteries and used as a windbreak alongside roads.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The tree can also prevent damage to land caused by violent weather.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

File:Cypress of Abarqu.JPG

4000-year-old Cypress of Abarkuh, Iran

The vast majority of the trees in cultivation are selected cultivars with a fastigiate crown, with erect branches forming a narrow to very narrow crown often less than a tenth as wide as the tree is tall. The dark green "exclamation mark" shape of these trees is a highly characteristic signature of Mediterranean town and village landscapes.Template:Citation needed

In cosmetics, it is used as an astringent, for firming, as an anti-seborrheic, for anti-dandruff, for anti-aging and as a fragrance.<ref name = Carrasco>Template:Cite book</ref> It is also the traditional wood used for Italian harpsichords.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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Cone dispersal with seeds of Cupressus sempervirens

Dried seeds of Cupressus sempervirens are sometimes used to help people control skin conditions such as acne and to heal cuts or scrapes.<ref name=sas/> The oil from the leaves of the plant can aid in recovery from minor ailments like nasal congestion.<ref name=sas/>

HabitatsEdit

Cupressus sempervirens grows primarily in places with wet winters and hot summers; in the spring and autumn, the tree grows out its roots, stems, and leaves.<ref name=EFSA/> Like most plants, Cupressus sempervirens requires light for such growth.<ref name="EU-Trees4F"/> Because the tree must survive wet winters and hot, dry summers, its roots are adapted to be stout and shallow for easier gathering of the nutrients in the soil.<ref name=EFSA/> The roots of Cupressus sempervirens are adapted to function in both acidic and alkaline soils.<ref name=sas/>

In cultureEdit

IranEdit

File:Stylized Trees and Flowers on the Apadana Staircase (Best Viewed Size "Large") (4688859421).jpg

Stylized Cypress Trees from Persepolis, Shiraz, Iran. One of the three varieties of C. sempervirens native to Iran is called the Shirazi Cypress.

In Persian, C. sempervirens is called the "Graceful Cypress" (sarv-e nāz), and has a strong presence in culture, poetry and gardens. It bears several metaphors, including the "graceful figure and stately gait of [the] beloved".<ref name="Aʿlam-2020" /> Iranians considered cypress to be a relic of Zoroaster. A Zoroastrian tradition recorded by Daqiqi maintains that King Vishtaspa, after converting to Zoroastrianism, ordered a cypress brought from paradise by Zoroaster to be planted near the first fire temple.<ref name="Aʿlam-2020" />

The oldest living cypress is the Sarv-e-Abarkooh in Iran's Yazd Province. Its age is estimated to be approximately 4,000 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Failed verification

SymbolismEdit

In classical antiquity, the cypress was a symbol of mourning, and in the modern era, it remains the principal cemetery tree in both the Muslim world and Europe. In the classical tradition, the cypress was associated with death and the underworld because it failed to regenerate when cut back too severely. Athenian households in mourning were garlanded with boughs of cypress.<ref>Servius, note to Vergil's Aeneid 3.680.</ref> Cypress was used to fumigate the air during cremations.<ref>Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 17.7.34.</ref> It was among the plants that were suitable for making wreaths to adorn statues of Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld.<ref>Natalis Comes, Mythologiae 2.9.</ref>

The poet Ovid, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, records the best-known myth that explains the association of the cypress with grief. The handsome boy Cyparissus, a favorite of Apollo, accidentally killed a beloved tame stag. His grief and remorse were so inconsolable that he asked to weep forever. He was transformed into a cypress tree, with the tree's sap as his tears.<ref>Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.106ff.</ref> In another version of the story, it was the woodland god Silvanus who was the divine companion of Cyparissus and accidentally killed the stag. When the boy was consumed by grief, Silvanus turned him into a tree and thereafter carried a branch of cypress as a symbol of mourning.<ref>Servius, note to Vergil's Georgics 1.20.</ref>

In Jewish tradition, cypress is held to be the wood used to build Noah's Ark Template:Citation needed and Solomon's Temple,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and is mentioned as an idiom or metaphor in biblical passages, either referencing the tree's shape as an example of uprightness or its evergreen nature as an example of eternal beauty or health. The tree features in classical Aramaic writings.<ref>Aramaic Targum of Song of Solomon 1:17, Quote: “Solomon, the prophet, said: ‘How beautiful is the Temple of the Lord that was built by me from cedar trees! But how much more beautiful shall be the Temple that will be built in the future in the days of the King Messiah, whose rafters shall be taken from the cedars of the Garden of Eden, and whose joists shall be taken from cypress trees (Cupressus sempervirens), firs and junipers’...”</ref>Template:Better source needed

In popular culture,Template:Where C. sempervirens is often stereotypically associated with vacation destinations in the Mediterranean region, especially Italy. The tree has been seen on travel posters for decades.<ref name="wikimedia">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="postercorner">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Better source needed

Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel III (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin).jpg

Isle of the Dead (1883) by Arnold Böcklin. Third version in a series of five.
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Cypresses (1889) by Vincent van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Other van Gogh cypress paintings include Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night.
Cupressus sempervirens Stricta.jpg

Fastigiate Mediterranean cypress C. sempervirens 'Stricta', planted in Hawaii.

Other characteristicsEdit

In July 2012, a forest fire lasting five days burned 20,000 hectares of forest in the Valencian village of Andilla. However, a group of 946 cypress trees about 22 years old was virtually unharmed, and only 12 cypresses were burned. The Andilla cypresses had been planted by the CypFire European project to study various aspects of the cypresses, including fire resistance.<ref name="elpais">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>