CUYAMAKA CYPRESS - Cupressus stephensonii - 20 Seeds

Cupressus stephensonii (Cuyamaca Cypress) - A large evergreen coniferous naturally spreading tree to 30 to 50 feet tall by only slightly less wide with a central trunk leader having wide with smooth cherry red bark that exfoliates in curly pieces and scale-like silver gray-green leaves. A dioecious species with females producing small brown cones in spring.

Plant in full sun and given occasional to infrequent irrigation. This tree is drought tolerant with a cold hardiness down to at least -12 degC

Cuyamaca Cypress is one of the rarest of the Cypresses, and was only found naturally in the headwaters of King Creek on the southwest side of Cuyamaca Peak, in San Diego County, with only thirty to forty individual older trees remaining after the Cedar Fire that burned 273,246 acres in October and November 2003.