Hesperocyparis bakeri, previously known Cupressus bakeri, with the common names Baker cypress, Modoc cypress, or Siskiyou cypress, is a rare species of western cypress tree endemic to a small area across far northern California and extreme southwestern Oregon, in the western United States.

Description

left|thumb|upright|Trunk of a young tree

The evergreen tree has a conic crown, growing to heights of , exceptionally to 39 m (130 ft), and a trunk diameter of up to 50 centimeters (20 inches), exceptionally to 1 m (40 in). The bark is thin, red when young, and gray in maturity.

The seed cones are globose to oblong, covered in warty resin glands, long, with 6 or 8 (rarely 4 or 10) scales, green to brown at first, maturing gray or gray-brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, and release pollen in February–March.

Taxonomy

Hesperocyparis bakeri was given its first scientific description and named Cupressus bakeri in 1909 by the botanist Willis Linn Jepson. Jepson changed his mind about this classification in 1923, publishing a description of it as a subspecies named Cupressus macnabiana var. bakeri. Since that time the genus has also changed several times with the most recent being as part of Hesperocyparis. and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS).

Distribution and habitat

The tree grows in limited populations in southwestern Oregon's Josephine and Jackson counties, and slightly more populously in a small section of Northern California within Siskiyou, Modoc, Shasta, Plumas and Tehama counties. It is probably the northernmost cypress. It is slow-growing in the wild, and is mostly restricted to sites difficult for plant growth, on serpentine soils and on old lava flows. Its tolerance of these sites enables it to avoid competition from much faster-growing trees. It is found in chaparral and yellow pine forest habitats.

See also

  • List of plants on the Modoc National Forest
  • Milo Samuel Baker

References

  • CalFlora Database: Hesperocyparis bakeri (Baker's cypress)
  • Jepson Manual eFlora (JM2) treatment of Hesperocyparis bakeri
  • USDA Plants Profile for Hesperocyparis bakeri (Modoc cypress)
  • Gymnosperm Database: Cupressus bakeri
  • photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in 1934 in Siskiyou County, California
  • UC Calphotos Photos Gallery: Hesperocyparis bakeri