Teufelskunst Garden: Cypress

Cypressus sempervirens

Family
Cupressaceae

Subfamily
Cupressoidea

Genus
Cupressus

Species
Cupressus sempervirens

Related genera
Calocedrus, Chamaecyparis, Cupressus, Juniperus, Platycladus, Tetraclinis, Thuja

Names and Myth

Cipresso mediterraneo, the Mediterranean Cypress, also Graveyard Cypress, Funeral Cypress, Pencil Pine, in Germany known as Säulenzypresse, Echte Zypresse, Italienische Zypresse or Mittelmeer-Zypresse. Native to Northeast Lybia, Southeast Greece and Turkey it featured also prominently in ancient Iranian garden culture. The oldest living Cypress is the Sarv-e-Abarkooh in Iran's Yazd Province. Its age is estimated to be approximately 4,000 years. The fastigiate variant with a narrow crown is rather characteristic for Mediterranean landscapes, particularly Italian Tuscany. The wood is appreciated for its durability and scent. It was used for temple doors, e.g. St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, god and goddess statues, religious icons or saints, boats and sarcophagi. Cypressus sempervirens is said to yield the most fragrant of the various cypress essential oils. Cypress acted as a symbol of mourning and sadness already during antiquity, where it was used to fumigate the air during cremations and hung up on altars in households of morning. In modern times Cypress is still the principal cemetery tree in both the European and Muslim world. Sempervirens is Latin for evergreen. Cupressus derives from Greek mythology: A boy named Cyparissus, Greek Kyparissos, who was loved by the sun god Apollo, was transformed into a cypress tree when mourning the death of a beloved deer that he accidentally killed with an arrow and he asks the god to make his "tears fall forever". The boy's tears become the sap/resin of the tree, which weeps to the lyre of Orpheus (Ovid, Metamorphoses X). In another version the woodland god Silvanus kills the deer and when his beloved Cyparissus transforms out of grief into the tree Silvanus from then on carries a Cypress branch. In yet another version the lover of Cyparissus was Zephyrus, the West Wind. Cypress is mentioned also extensively in the Persian epic Shahnameh, The Book of Kings. In art Impressionist painter and visionary Vincent van Gogh often painted cypress trees. 20th century surrealist painter Dali had a Cypress fetish and added the tree to several of his paintings, most famously the Death tarot card. In New Mexico Cypress is also called 'drama tree' because it bends with the slightest breeze.