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Cupressus atlantica
Moroccan cypress is a rare, critically endangered conifer tree native to one river valley in the High Atlas of Morocco, with bluish foliage and small round cones. Grown mainly in botanic gardens and conservation collections, it needs a warm, dry, sunny site with good drainage.
Cupressus atlantica, the Moroccan cypress, is a rare coniferous tree endemic to the valley of the Oued n'Fiss river in the High Atlas Mountains south of Marrakesh in western Morocco. The majority are old, with very little regeneration due to overgrazing by goats, and they are critically endangered.
This species is distinct from the allied Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean cypress) in its much bluer foliage with a white resin spot on each leaf, the smaller shoots often being flattened in a single plane. It also has smaller, globose cones, only 1.5-2.5 cm long. Cupressus dupreziana (Saharan cypress) is more similar, and C. atlantica is treated as a variety of it (C. dupreziana var. atlantica) by some authors. Moroccan cypress does not however share the unique reproductive system of male apomixis found in Saharan cypress.
South Tibetan Cypress · Hesperocyparis bakeri · Bhutan Cypress · Cheng Cypress · Yunnan Cypress · Saharan Cypress · Hesperocyparis forbesii · Chinese Weeping Cypress · Tsangpo cypress · Hesperocyparis glabra · Hesperocyparis goveniana · Hesperocyparis guadalupensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cupressus atlantica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
