You are buying 200+ Fresh Italian Cypress / Cupressus Sempervirens – STRICTA variety seeds just harvested from years old mature trees and grown in their natural Mediterranean climate. This variety is characterized by straight upright branches similar to vertical tree-like columns in shape when mature.

Very fresh seeds just collected during 2023.

Cupressus Sempervirens, the Mediterranean Cypress (also known as Italian, Tuscan, or Graveyard Cypress, or Pencil Pine) is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southern Albania, southeast Greece (Crete, Rhodes), southern Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Egypt, western Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Malta, Italy, western Jordan, and also a disjunct population in Iran. It is a medium-sized coniferous evergreen tree to 35 m (115 ft) tall, with a conic crown with level branches and variably loosely hanging branchlets. It is very long-lived, with some trees reported to be over 1,000 years old.

The foliage grows in dense sprays, dark green in colour. The leaves are scale-like, 2–5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The seed cones are ovoid or oblong, 25–40 mm long, with 10-14 scales, green at first, maturing brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, and release pollen in late winter. It 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'.

Uses

Mediterranean Cypress has been widely cultivated as an ornamental tree for millennia away from its native range, mainly throughout the central and western 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 (coastal Oregon, Washington and British Columbia). It is also planted in south Florida as an ornamental tree. In some areas, particularly the United States, it is known inaccurately as "Italian" or

“Tuscan Cypress”; although the species is very commonly cultivated in Italy, it is not native there.

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. Formerly, the species was sometimes separated into two varieties, the wild C. sempervirens var. sempervires (syn. Vat. Horizontalis). and the fastigiate C. s. var. pyramidalis (syn. Var. fastigiata, var. stricta), but the latter is now only distinguished as  a Cultivar Group, with no botanical significance.

It is also known for its very durable, scented wood, used most famously for the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome. Cypress used to be used in distilleries as staves to hold mash ferments to make alcohol before the invention of stainless steel. Commonly seen throughout New Mexico, the Mediterranean Cypress is also known as the “drama tree” because of its tendency to bend with even the slightest of breezes.

In cosmetics it is use as astringent, firming, antiseborrheic antidandruff, antiaging and as fragrance.

General Information

Hardiness Zones: 7-10

Habit: Evergreen

Growth Rate: Moderate

Site Requirements: Sun; range of soil types

Texture: Medium to fine

Form: Very upright; slender column when young; horizontal branches

Height: 5 to 10m

Width: 1 to 2m

Leaf: Dark green foliage

Comments: Blue-green columnar plant; use as accent

Cultivars: Glauca, Witchita Blue