Scientific name: Cupressus guadalupensis var. forbesii (Jeps.) Little 1970
Synonyms: Callitropsis forbesii (Jeps.) D.P.Little, Cupressus forbesii Jeps., Hesperocyparis forbesii (Jeps.) Bartel, Cupressus guadalupensis subsp. forbesii (Jeps.) R.M.Beauch., Neocupressus guadalupensis var. forbesii (Jeps.) de Laub.
Common names: Tecate cypress, Forbes cypress
Description
Tree to 8(-10) m tall, with single trunk to 1 m in diameter or dividing near the base. Bark rich reddish brown, mottled with green and gray, smooth and flaking, becoming grayish brown, fibrous and furrowed at the base of large trunks. Crown widely spreading, open, rounded, with rising branches. Branchlets cylindrical to slightly four-sided, 1-1.5(-2) mm in diameter, branching from all four rows of leaves. New foliage bright light green, darkening with age. Scale leaves on branchlets 1-1.5(-2) mm long, light to dark green, sometimes slightly waxy, the back often with an inconspicuous, inactive gland. Pollen cones 4-5 mm long, usually terete or sometimes slightly angular, microsporophylls 12-14 per cone, with four to seven pairs of pollen scales. Seed cones globose, mostly not more than 3 cm long. Seed 10-15 per scale, 5-6 mm long, dark brown, waxy or not, sometimes with resin pockets.
This taxon is here treated as a variety, with the other variety of this species endemic to Guadalupe Island, Mexico. This disjunction, rather than a suite of distinct characters, has led to the acceptance of two species by several botanists; this was recently expressed in the name under Hesperocyparis (and some other, now no longer valid generic names), which is a split of the genus based on some DNA analyses. The taxon was originally described as a species under Cupressus.
Orange and San Diego Counties, California, south in the coastal mountains of Baja California, Mexico, to San Quintín; 210-1,280 m.
Conservation Status
Red List Category & Criteria: Endangered
Recent figures of population size and continuous decline are known from at least two of five subpopulations in California (there are scattered occurrences across the border in Mexico, of which little is known). However, the total population size is not known but must exceed 10,000 mature or adult trees. The area of occupancy has been estimated using the herbarium data collected from all Californian and two Mexican subpopulations: this is at most 32 km² and probably less, and decreasing along with the number of mature trees. The fire frequency exceeds the requirements of a sustainable population, resulting in significant declines and fluctuations. This taxon therefore meets the criterion for listing as Endangered.
It is found in chaparral on slopes with Adenostoma spp., Arctostaphylos sp., in ravines in the Upper Sonoran life zone associated with Acer sp., Rhus laurina, Quercus spp. and the former species; often along intermittent streams on loamy, sandy, gravelly or rocky soils (or 'adobe soil') over sandstone or granite in full sun. The climate is of the Mediterranean type with dry, hot summers and winter rain. Recorded from 210 up to 1,280 m asl.
Tecate Cypress has a restricted distribution in San Diego County and one disjunct subpopulation in Orange County, which was the earliest one known to botanists (Griffin and Critchfield 1972). The largest subpopulation is on Otay Mountain close to the Mexican border. These latter trees were very close to the (then) new highway from Tecate to Mexicali. Urbanization in the region has brought an increased risk of wildfires and the prevention as well as the attempts to put these down or restrict them will be concentrated around urban properties, not in the first place around populations of rare trees. Like its congeners in California, this cypress will regenerate after fire but there is a definite risk to survival if frequency or intensity of fires are increasing due to human impact factors. There have been six major fires in one subpopulation (Santa Ana Mts., Orange Co.) during the last 95 years; this subpopulation had 3,800 adult trees in 2009 (Rodriguez-Buritica et al. 2010). There has been a significant population reduction in the last two decades, due to increased frequency of fires. It has been estimated that the population will continue to decline when major fires occur at intervals shorter than 35 years, which has been the case at least in this subpopulation. As a result, it is now severely fragmented, with many adult trees ‘hidden’ in ravines (refugia from fires) and isolated from other such stands. The greater majority of plants are seedlings and small saplings, which would not contribute to the perpetuation of the (sub)population if another major fire occurred in the next 20-30 years. A subpopulation in the Coal Canyon Reserve burnt almost completely in 2010; here most trees had not grown sufficiently large since the previous fire to produce large crops of cones needed to provide enough seedlings to replace the trees killed. There is not much time for this, and with more frequent fires this subpopulation will in the longer-term turn into chaparral.
A management plan was published for the subpopulation in the Santa Ana Mountains, Orange Co. This management plan, in its executive summary, stresses as the most important measure control of fires. If fires are too frequent, the vegetation turns to chaparral (a fire-adapted vegetation of low shrubs and annuals), if too infrequent, other trees invade and out-compete the cypresses. Modelling studies are being undertaken to estimate the correct frequency of fires that preserve the cypress stands in the long term.
Cultivars: -
References
- Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
- Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland
Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.
