Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress or Sawara ) is a species of cypress in the genus Chamaecyparis, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshà « and Kyà «shà «.
It is a slow-growing coniferous tree growing to 35âÂÂ50 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m in diameter. The bark is red-brown, vertically fissured and with a stringy texture. The foliage is arranged in flat sprays; adult leaves are scale-like, 1.5âÂÂ2 mm long, with pointed tips (unlike the blunt tips of the leaves of the related Chamaecyparis obtusa (hinoki cypress), green above, green below with a white stomatal band at the base of each scale-leaf; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs on the shoots. The juvenile leaves, found on young seedlings, are needle-like, 4âÂÂ8 mm long, soft and glaucous bluish-green. The cones are globose, 4âÂÂ8 mm diameter, with 6âÂÂ10 scales arranged in opposite pairs, maturing in autumn about 7âÂÂ8 months after pollination.
A related cypress found on Taiwan, Chamaecyparis formosensis (Formosan cypress), differs in longer ovoid cones 6âÂÂ10 mm long with 10âÂÂ16 scales. The extinct Eocene species Chamaecyparis eureka, known from fossils found on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada, is noted to be very similar to C. pisifera.
The Latin specific epithet pisifera, "pea-bearing", refers to the small round green cones.
It is grown for its timber in Japan, where it is used as a material for building palaces, temples, shrines and baths, and making coffins, though less valued than the timber of C. obtusa. The wood is lemon-scented and light-coloured with a rich, straight grain, and is rot resistant.
It is also a popular ornamental tree in parks and gardens, both in Japan and elsewhere in temperate climates including western and central Europe and parts of North America. A large number of cultivars have been selected for garden planting, including dwarf forms, forms with yellow or blue-green leaves, and forms retaining the juvenile needle-like foliage; particularly popular juvenile foliage cultivars include 'Plumosa', 'Squarrosa' and 'Boulevard'.
In cultivation in the UK the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (confirmed 2017):