Thursday, February 2, 2012

Coffin Cypress

Taiwania cryptomeroides

Wow what a beautiful tree!!! Why doesn't anybody plant this Taiwanese native? I really can't answer why this obviously hardy very beautiful coniferous tree isn't more widely grown in the U.S. Then again this is why I am here.!!! For the south eastern U.S. and places from Portland to Vancouver on the West Coast - it is the perfect large evergreen landscape tree. It is one of the worlds longest lived trees; is extremely beautiful and is unbothered by insects or disease.
The Coffin Cypress is very fast growing ( averaging 43 x 13 feet in 20 years ) and growth rates of 6.6 feet height increase and 1 inch trunk increase are known. It is almost extinct and logged out of existence in the wild - this tree is in the same family as the California Redwoods and can also grow rediculously huge!!! It can reach up to 260 feet tall, 40 feet or more in canopy width, and with a MASSIVE 20 feet in trunk diameter ( up to 33 ft. across at the swollen trunk base ). The crown is conical and had graceful drooping branchlets.
The attractive reddish bark peels in strips and the cypress like foliage is bluish green.
Hardy zones 7 to 10, it loves the hot humid summers of the southeastern U.S. It prefers moist, acidic, well drained soils in a place protected from wind in full sun.

* Picture of giant old tree in Taiwan that I found on the internet

* photos taken Feb 2009 @ U.S. National Arboretum, D.C.





* photos taken on June 23 2013 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on Feb 8 2014 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on Apr 24 2016 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on Sep 3 2017 @ U.S. National Arboretum, D.C.

* photos taken on Aug 4 2021 @ U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, DC


Taiwania flousiana
An almost identical equally hardy species found in southwest China and Burma. A tree located in a Geoligong protected area was for a time, the tallest known tree in China at 236 feet. It is endangered in the wild.
Hardy north to zone 7.

* photo taken on Feb 2009 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on 4th of July 2010 @ U.S. National Arboretum, D.C.


* photos taken on Feb 8 2015 @ U.S. National Arboretum, DC

* photos taken on Aug 4 2021 @ U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, DC

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