Cypress Lusitanica

Scientific Name: Cypress lusitanica

Common Name: (Mexican cedar)

Family: Cupressaceae

Names in other languages: Amharic (yeferenji-tid); English (cypress,cedar of Goa,Mexican cypress,Kenya cypress); French (cyprés,cyprés de Mexico,cyprès de Goa); German (Mexikanische Zypresse,blaugrüne Zypresse); Spanish (ciprés Mexicano,ciprés de Portugal,ciprés); Swahili (msanduku); Tigrigna(tsehdiferenji); Trade name (cypress)

General Information

Cupressus lusitanica is an evergreen tree with a dense, conical crown; it can grow up to 35 meters tall. The short bole can be 70cm in diameter. Native to Central America, it has been widely planted as a forestry tree at higher elevations in tropical and subtropical areas. A beautiful tree, it can be planted in amenity areas. The young branches are used in great quantities for decorations during all the fiestas; and they are employed in large amounts for making coronas or wreaths for cemeteries

Features of Cypress Lusitanica that make it identifiable:

The Bark on trunk is reddish brown, exfoliating in long, narrow strips, eventually becoming roughened by the development of many short cracks.

The leaves are characteristic of the Cypress family of conifers, being small, scale-like, dark green, and when crushed, give off a strongly resinous aroma.

The flowers are cones, with female and male cones borne separately on the same tree. The male cones are around 0.3 cm (0.13 in) in diameter and greenish-yellow. The female cones are larger, 1.5 cm (0.6 in) in diameter and whitish-green, becoming brown when mature and releasing winged seed dispersed by the wind. Flowering starts when the tree is about fifteen years old.

Uses

Cupressus lusitanica is planted as an ornamental (e.g. as a Christmas tree), as a shade tree, and in windbreaks and live fences. It is used for making toothbrushes and brooms. The bark is used as an astringent. The leaves are used to treat catarrh and headache, leaf sap to treat skin diseases. Distillation of leaves, twigs, fruits or flowers yields 0.05–3% essential oil; reported compositions vary widely. Essential oil from the leaves and hexane leaf extracts has shown antifungal activity against skin pathogens, which supports the use against skin diseases in Cameroon. A crude ethanol extract of the leaves has shown cytotoxicity in a range of cancer cell lines, with cell death being due to apoptosis.