Looks a lot like what I have as Cupressus chengiana. Be careful when it gets bigger, mine was close to 20' when the heavy wet snow/ice mix of March pulled it down to horizontal, even though I'd of course been careful to keep to a single stem. It now has a fixed lean, that I'm trying to figure out how to resolve.

(needless to say, there are no "nor'easters" in China, with the Siberian High keeping such massive winter storm systems out. Thus no adaptation to heavy winter snow...that being said that was the worst single weather event in the last 11 years of this garden, and could have done-in something as ubiquitous as a common Juniperus virginiana.)

Is this the same as or related to c. gigantea

Cupressus gigantea has overlapping range with Cupressus torulosa at it's Eastern

extent of range. See "Conifers around the World" for more extensive information!

Cupressus gigantea has overlapping range with Cupressus torulosa at it's Eastern extent of range.

No way. Cupressus torulosa does not go East of central Nepal on the southern slopes of the Himalayan range. Cupressus gigantea grows on the northern side of that range and some 900 km further East away. Farjon, who is unable to id a Cupressus torulosa confusing it with Cupressus lusitanica, sees this species everywhere (Tibet, Vietnam, etc.).

Looks a lot like what I have as Cupressus chengiana.

As seedlings or saplings they are quite different and very easy to distinguish. When they are adult, the cones are very different too.

"As seedlings or saplings they are quite different and very easy to distinguish."

Well, only to trained taxonomists. To my layperson's eyes they are very similar and I certainly have experience looking at plants my entire life.* It's got the delicate threadiness that isn't seen in commonly cultivated conifers, at least on the US east coast. From my thread about whether I could have a hybrid of this species...I also have Leyland and Ovens Cypress in the garden though, so the jury is still out on which could be the pollen parent.

cf: Cupressus vietnamensis Case Closed

* - and I can't feel too bad when you cite one of the world's supposed conifer experts - who certainly is trained - being confused by that section of the genus! By your estimation, anyhow.

Sorry! According to that prior thread, I really need to call mine Cupressus duclouxiana 'Eric's Form'! One problem is that Lazy'ss Farm nursery doesn't send you an email confirmation with your purchases listed, only a PDF which doesn't get indexed by Yahoo mail. So, if you don't make a record entry upon receipt, it becomes hard to track down what you'd purchased in the past. Thus about 5 years after purchasing, I entered the wrong plant name from memory. And, if I may keep making excuses, it looks just like what I remembered as C. chengiana.

I have just updated my spreadsheet plant database, so hopefully that will help me remember the right name from now on haha. I wonder if Debbie still grows that. Let's face it, conifers are harder to market than showy perennials.

Can we agree that many of these Asian cupressus look similar to a
non-specialist? Other than the obviously weeping ones. (which also seem
to have more slightly more fan like foliage, albeit nothing like Chamaecyparis. Co-evolution?)

Mine was totally unaffected by the polar winters. With Bean, Grimshaw et IDS freres saying it's tender in SE England, I do wonder what I really have: http://treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cupressus_duclouxiana.php

Still waiting for mine to cone so pseudosequoia can definitively ID it, but bumping this thread to report we had a pretty significant icing event a week or so ago, and although the branch tips were weeping from ice (didn't have time to get a picture, work was blowing up that day) the whole tree this time wasn't bowed over from the weight. Which was a relief.

Looking good today.