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Arizona Cypress
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Arizona Cypress
ntroduced Photo: Gurcharan Singh
Common name: Arizona Cypress
Botanical name: Cupressus arizonica    Family: Cupressaceae (Cypress family)

Arizona Cypress is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a conic to ovoid-conic crown. It grows to heights of 10-25 m, and its trunk diameter reaches 50 cm. Leaves grow in dense sprays, varying from dull gray-green to bright glaucous blue-green in color. Leaves are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and are produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed cones are spherical to oblong, 1.5-3.3 cm long, with 6 or 8 (rarely 4 or 10) scales, green at first, maturing to gray or gray-brown about 20-24 months after pollination. The cones remain closed for many years, only opening after the parent tree is killed in a wildfire, thereby allowing the seeds to colonize the bare ground exposed by the fire. The male cones are 3-5 mm long, and release pollen in February-March.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed at Shankeracharya hill, Kashmir.
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