Lawson's Cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. Cultivated, northeastern England (foliage, September 2007; bark, July 2006). Lawson's Cypress is a rare species in the wild in SW Oregon and NW California, where it is endangered by the introduced root disease Phytophthora lateralis. Cultivation of the species in North America is also greatly restricted by this disease. This disease does not occur in Europe, and there, Lawson's Cypress is an extremely popular ornamental tree, both the natural species (foliage and cones, shown here), and many of the 200+ named cultivars. The species is sometimes wrongly called a 'cedar', a name that should only be used for species in the genus Cedrus (Kelsey & Dayton, Standardized Plant Names, ed.2, American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature).
