Scientific Name: Chamaecyparis pisifera
Common Name: false cypress, sawara cypress
Family Name: Cupressaceae
Origin: S.E. Asia / Japan / China
Hardiness Zone: Zone 4: (-34 to -29 °C)
Plant Type: Conifer
Mature Size: 15 - 22m x 15 - 25m (height x width)
Habit: Irregular
Form: Irregular, Pyramidal - narrowly
Texture: Fine
Landscape Uses: Hedge row, Screening
Exposure: Full sun
Soil or Media: Humus rich, Well-drained
Leaves: Scale-like, Opposite, Imbricate, Leathery, Prickly, Glabrous, Acicular, Rhomboidal, Other, Entire
Flowers: n/a (male cone), Brown, Black, Mar-Apr
Fruit: Cone (winged seeds), Green, Brown
Key ID Features:
Shaggy growth habit, >15m tall (most cultivars 2-10m tall in 15 years); juvenile leaves acicular, 6mm long, spreading in 4 rows, blue-green, whitish beneath; mature leaves scale-like, 3mm long, sharp-pointed, overlapping, opposite in 4 rows, top pair flattened, side pair keeled, each scale smoothly rounded and minutely mucronate; seed cones on short stalks, round, ruffled (like a pea seed), 5-8mm wide with 8-10 scales with small pointed tips, maturing dark brown; seeds 1-2 beaneath each scale. <a href ='https://www.conifers.org/cu/Chamaecyparis_pisifera.php' target='_blank'>Conifers.org</a>