Saharan cypress

This species is distinct from the allied Cupressus sempervirens 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 cones, only 1.5-2.5 cm long. Cupressus atlantica is more similar, and is treated as a variety of the Saharan Cypress by some authors.

Cupressus dupreziana, the Saharan Cypress, is a very rare coniferous tree native to the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in the central Sahara Desert, southeast Algeria, where it forms a unique population of trees hundreds of kilometres from any other trees. There are only 233 specimens of this critically endangered species, the largest about 22 m tall. The majority are very old, estimated to be over 2000 years old, with very little regeneration due to the increasing desertification of the Sahara. More

Cupressus dupreziana from Lebanon (cultivated). International Dendrology Society Yearbook 1979:97 (1980). More