Leyland Cypress / Leylandii

X Cupressocyparis leylandii

The Leyland Cypress tree is technically referred to as a bi-generic hybrid plant which means that it is the result of two different Genuses of parent trees. The scientific convention in such a case is to write the botanical name with an initial ‘X’. The origin of Leyland Cypress is interesting because the parent trees would not normally have grown close enough to cross fertilise and propagate offspring. One of the parent trees is Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) which grows naturally in California. The natural range of the other parent tree, Nootka Cypress (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis), is found further north from Washington to Alaska. The first Leyland Cypress was discovered growing in the late 1880’s in the grounds of a private estate in Wales which had trees of each Genus growing close together. The tree takes its name from a family name associated with the estate owners.

Bi-generic hybrid plants are not uncommon in nature but they are sterile and so can only be reproduced from cuttings, taken from branch tips of an existing tree.

Without specialist knowledge, it is difficult to positively distinguish the Leyland from numerous other kinds of Cypress tree. All Cypress trees are evergreen, with small scale-like foliage. The Leyland Cypress can grow over a meter a year in height and some trees at the Forestry Commission’s Bedgebury Pinetum near Goudhurst in Kent are over 30m tall. However, if kept regularly pruned they make hardy dense evergreen hedges.

Situation
Leyland Cypress trees growing throughout the UK must number in the millions. Seldom found in woodland or open countryside but readily obtained from garden centres and supermarkets, they are frequently planted in gardens to form dense, fast growing evergreen hedges. There can be few towns or villages where it is not possible to find a hedge composed of this ubiquitous tree. Some large specimen trees can be found growing in the Blackwater Arboretum at Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, near Brockenhurst.

Uses

Leyland Cypress has no current timber or medicinal value and is too young a plant to have established any special ecological associations although the tree appears attractive to numerous species of small native birds, if only for perching and nesting in the dense foliage.