David Gress
Montezuma Bald Cypress is an extraordinary tree. There is a specimen (called the “Council Tree”) in Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, which is estimated to be over 2,000 years old, and which holds the world’s record as the tree with the stoutest trunk – 37.5 feet in diameter! Not surprisingly, Montezuma Bald Cypress has been designated as the national tree of Mexico.
Montezuma Bald Cypress has a long history in Santa Barbara. In the late 1890s, one of our pioneering nurserymen, Dr. Francesco Franceschi, introduced them into California by propagating them from seeds that were collected from the famous Council Tree. In 1907, Dr. A. Boyd Doremus, one of our City’s first Park Commissioners, had these trees planted out in town. They still stand proudly in East and West Alameda Parks, in Vera Cruz Park, and in the garden of the now-long-gone Potter Hotel (218 West Yanonali Street).
This evergreen or semi-evergreen conifer can grow to be a huge tree, with a height and spread of over 100 feet.
Locally, it is relatively fast-growing. When young, it has a dense pyramidal shape with graceful pendulous branchlets. As it matures, its growth slows, and the crown begins to spread into a rounded open crown.
The branchlets are covered with needles that are soft, pointed, dull green, and ¼ to ½-inch-long. The new needles appear in the spring and will usually persist through to winter; thereafter, they can turn yellow and drop off. In the coldest areas, a good deal of the needles can fall, making the tree semi-deciduous.
Montezuma Bald Cypress is “monoecious”, which means each tree bears both male cones and female flowers. These emerge in late summer and fall, with small male pollen cones forming on 3- to 6-inch-long branched twigs on the previous year’s growth and female flowers forming near the ends of the new pendulous branchlets. Pollinated female flowers develop into ½- to ¾ -inch-long purplish green, ovoid, seed cones that are attached to the twigs on short stalks. When mature, the seed cones turn brown and open to release their viable seeds.
As the tree matures, its trunk becomes remarkably thick near its base. The trunk is covered with attractively furrowed bark that appears in a latticed pattern, with gray color on the upper bark and reddish-brown color inside the furrows.
Montezuma Bald Cypress is native to most of Mexico, with small populations in Guatemala, in the southern Rio Grande valley of Texas, and in a small area in southern New Mexico. It naturally grows in riparian environments, that is, along rivers, streams and other water sources. Where it is found in dryer climates, it is drought tolerant but usually needs some summer rainfall. In our area, it will do better with judicious irrigation during the dry season.
In addition to its name of “Montezuma Bald Cypress”, it has many other common names including, “Montezuma Cypress”, “Mexican Swamp Cypress”, and “Mexican Cypress”. Its indigenous Aztec name is “Ahuehuete”.
Its botanical name is Taxodium mucronatum. The genus name, Taxodium, is a combination of the Greek words “taxus” (meaning “yew tree”) and “eidos” (meaning “resembling”) and refers to the similarity of its leaf shape to the yew’s leaf shape. The specific epithet, mucronatum, is a botanical term that means “ending in a small point” and refers to the points of its needles.
In California and other suitable climates, Montezuma Bald Cypress is used primarily in ornamental landscapes. It is a magnificent tree for parks and large gardens, due to its impressive size at maturity. Interestingly, it is also used in bonsai.
In modern Mexico, its timber is utilized for construction, for fine carpentry, and for furniture. Historically, indigenous people used all parts of the tree as medicine to treat a variety of ailments, and the foliage was considered sacred in their religious ceremonies.
Montezuma Bald Cypress is easily propagated from fresh seed collected in late fall. Seed briefly treated in hot water and then planted in a shallow covering of light planting mix should germinate in one to two months. When large enough to plant out, it should be placed in full sun and watered regularly until established. It prefers well drained loam soil but will tolerate clay soils. One great attribute is that it is essentially free from insect and disease problems.
Most of the examples of Montezuma Bald Cypress in Southern California are plantings that are 50 to 100 years old. However, there is a grove in the main courtyard of the Getty Center in Los Angeles that was planted in 1995. At about that same time, a Montezuma Bald Cypress was planted at the entrance to our own Pershing Park, alongside a grove of its plant cousin, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), which is native to the southeastern U.S.
The best examples of mature Montezuma Bald Cypress in Santa Barbara can be seen in East and West Alameda Parks, in Vera Cruz Park, in the 200 Block of West Yanonali Street, and at the entrance to Pershing Park (the first tree).
Tree-of-the-Month articles are sponsored by Santa Barbara Beautiful, whose many missions include the increase of public awareness and appreciation of Santa Barbara’s many outstanding trees and, in a long-time partnership with the City Parks & Recreation Department, the funding and planting of trees along the City’s streets.
Those who wish to honor a special someone can do so with an attractive commemorative marker that will be installed at the base of an existing street tree in the City of Santa Barbara. Because Santa Barbara Beautiful has participated in the planting to date of over 14,000 street trees, there are plenty of trees from which to choose! Application forms are available on the Santa Barbara Beautiful website, www.sbbeautiful.org.
