Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress (also known as Italian cypress, Tuscan cypress, Persian cypress, or pencil pine), is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Iran. While some studies show it has modern medicinal properties, it is most noted for uses in folk medicine, where the dried leaves of the plant are used for a variety of ailments.[1] It is well adapted to the conditions and the environment that it lives in due to the ability to survive in both acidic and alkaline soils, and withstand drought.[2] Cupressus sempervirens is widely present in culture, most notably in Iran, where it is both a sacred tree and is a metaphor for "the graceful figure of the beloved".
Cupressus sempervirens is a medium-sized coniferous evergreen tree up to 35 m (115 ft) tall, with a conic crown with level branches and variably loosely hanging branchlets.[3] It is very long-lived, with some trees reported to be over 1,000 years old.[4]
The foliage grows in dense sprays, which are 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, which are green at first, and mature to brown about 20–24 months after pollination. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, and release pollen in late winter. The cones of C. sempervirens can withstand years of being sealed.[5] 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'.[6]
Cupressis sempervirens produces lateral shoots, or branches, which often grow upwards towards a light source.[7] Cones of C. sempervirens can remain sealed for long periods of time, and are known to perform serotiny.[5]
Mediterranean cypress has been widely cultivated as an ornamental tree for millennia outside of its native range, mainly throughout the whole 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. It is also planted in Florida and parts of the coastal southern United States as an ornamental tree. In some areas, particularly the United States, it is known as "Italian" or "Tuscan cypress". Within its native range, the Mediterranean cypress has been historically planted in gardens and cemeteries, and used as a windbreak alongside roads.[8]
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.
In cosmetics it is used as astringent, firming, anti-seborrheic, anti-dandruff, anti-aging and as fragrance.[9] It is also the traditional wood used for Italian harpsichords.[10]
The dry seeds that come from the Cupressus sempervirens are sometimes used to help people control their skin conditions such as acne, and are of use in healing cuts or scrapes.[1] The oil that comes from the leaves of the plant can aid in recovery from minor ailments like nose congestion.[1] It can also prevent damage to land caused by violent weather.
Cupressus sempervirens grows primarily in places with wet winters and hot summers; in the spring and autumn, the tree grows out its roots, stems, and leaves.[2] Like most plants, Cupressus sempervirens requires light for such growth.[4] Due to the fact that the tree must survive wet winters and hot, dry summers, its roots are adapted to be stout and shallow, for easier gathering of the material and nutrients that the soil provides for them.[2] The roots of Cupressus sempervirens are adapted to function effortlessly in either low or high pH environments.[1]
In Persian, C. sempervirens is called the "Graceful Cypress" (sarv-e nāz), and has a distinguished presence in culture, poetry and gardens. It bears several metaphors, including the "graceful figure and stately gait of [the] beloved". Iranians considered cypress to be a relic of Zoroaster. A Zoroastrian tradition recorded by Daqiqi maintains that King Vishtaspa, after converting to Zoroastrianism, ordered a cypress brought from paradise by Zoroaster to be planted near the first fire temple.
The oldest living cypress is the Sarv-e-Abarkooh in Iran's Yazd Province. Its age is estimated to be approximately 4,000 years.[11]
In classical antiquity, the cypress was a symbol of mourning, and in the modern era it remains the principal cemetery tree in both the Muslim world and Europe. In the classical tradition, the cypress was associated with death and the underworld because it failed to regenerate when cut back too severely. Athenian households in mourning were garlanded with boughs of cypress.[12] Cypress was used to fumigate the air during cremations.[13] It was among the plants that were suitable for making wreaths to adorn statues of Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld.[14]
The poet Ovid, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, records the best-known myth that explains the association of the cypress with grief. The handsome boy Cyparissus, a favorite of Apollo, accidentally killed a beloved tame stag. His grief and remorse were so inconsolable that he asked to weep forever. He was transformed into a cypress tree, with the tree's sap as his tears.[15] In another version of the story, it was the woodland god Silvanus who was the divine companion of Cyparissus and accidentally killed the stag. When the boy was consumed by grief, Silvanus turned him into a tree, and thereafter carried a branch of cypress as a symbol of mourning.[16]
In Jewish tradition, the cypress was held to be the wood used to build Noah's Ark and The Temple, and is mentioned as an idiom or metaphor in biblical passages, either referencing the tree's shape as an example of uprightness or its evergreen nature as an example of eternal beauty or health. The tree features highly in classical Aramaic writings.[17]
In popular culture the Italian cypress is often stereotypically associated with vacation destinations to the Mediterranean region; Italy in particular. The tree has been seen on travel posters for decades.[18] [19]
In July 2012, a forest fire, lasting five days, devastated 20,000 hectares of forest in the Valencian village of Andilla. However, amid the charred landscape, a group of 946 cypress trees about 22 years old was virtually unharmed, and only 12 cypresses were burned. Andilla cypresses were planted by the CypFire European project studying various aspects of the cypresses, including fire resistance.[20]
