Plant Highlights

The Cuyamaca Cypress is recorded as existing only in the headwaters area of King Creek in the Cuyamaca Mountains of the Peninsular Ranges system, south of Cuyamaca Peak within San Diego County in extreme Southern California. The entire native (world) population of the tree was reduced down to thirty to forty individual trees by the 2003 Cedar Fire. It is possible there is still a small stand left in the San Gabriel Mountians although this needs verification. It is an IUCN Red List Critically endangered species, and a California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants listed Seriously endangered species. This rare cypress gets about 30' tall and almost as wide.It is rare to find it available in a nursery.