curator sweet’ s corner auburn: horticulture
| 2025 volume I
The“ mystery” dwarf form of Chamaecyparis pisifera, with several of the younger spontaneous trunks shown in the foreground.
A MOUNT AUBURN MYSTERY: Chamaecyparis pisifera
By Dennis Collins, Horticultural Curator
nfortunate gaps exist in the recording of plant
U acquisitions over Mount Auburn’ s first 160 years. We therefore undertake periodic reviews of the records to attempt proper identification of older specimens. Sometimes this proves to be very challenging.
A specimen on Willow Ave( west side) had been entered into our database as“ Chamaecyparis sp.,” a rather vague designation. The foliage characteristics all seemed to match the taxon Chamaecyparis pisifera‘ Plumosa’( Plume Sawara Cypress), a form of the Sawara Cypress of which we have 49 specimens in the collections. However, while those trees grow much like the species does in Japan, reaching 50 – 70 feet in height, our mystery plant is only 12 feet tall with a 6-inch diameter trunk. Furthermore, it exhibits the curious behavior of sending up additional trunks in the area surrounding the main trunk. An extensive review of the literature on dwarf conifers found no mention of this behavior in any of the cultivars selected from this species.
For our mystery plant, the closest description of a dwarf form of Chamaecyparis pisifera is the cultivar‘ Compacta’. Yet most catalogues describe this as a small bun-shaped plant, suitable for rock gardens. Mostly, nurseries selling dwarf conifers talk about what to expect in 10 years. Rarely does one hear about what size the plant might achieve after 50 years. Additionally, the cultivar‘ Compacta’ was only officially introduced in the early 1980s, so the oldest specimens in the world are less than 50 years old.
Research pointed us to the Gotelli collection of dwarf conifers at the U. S. National Arboretum. This collection was started in 1962 with donated plants that had already been growing for many years. Unfortunately, they don’ t have any large specimens of Chamaecyparis pisifera‘ Compacta’ to compare against our specimen.
The oldest cultivars of Chamaecyparis pisifera were introduced in 1861. Mount Auburn’ s first acquisitions of conifers from Japan was in 1890, when we purchased a shipload of plants from the Tokyo Nursery. It’ s unlikely that our mystery plant dates from that long ago, but it’ s possible that it was brought here in the early to mid-20th century. And it’ s also possible that it was acquired as a specific cultivar but eventually developed differences due to genetic mutation or site conditions. It might then represent a new cultivar.
In any case, the mystery cypress will require further investigation. We hope to obtain a core sample from the main trunk to determine its age, and then try to match it up with some archival records. Stay tuned!
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