April 21, 2013 - The Lone Cypress

jpc's post of wavy icicles reminded me of the Monterey Cypress trees of my youth. The most well-known, of course, is the Lone Cypress.


Source unknown.


We used to be able to walk right out to it. Then, up went a fence, then the path to the tree was barricaded. All we could do was look from a far.

A little known fact is that The Lone Cypress has actually been many Lone Cypress trees over the years. This one looks very different from the one I knew as a teen.

There has always been one main tree and another smaller tree off to the side. The story has it that when the main tree dies, the smaller one takes over and gets to be the main tree. After a while, a small tree will grow off of its roots and so on and so forth. The circle of life of the poor Lone Cypress tree.

Kind of Curious has a blog entry that explains why the trees grow in the way they do.

Here is another beautiful spread of Monterey Cypress from SBCA Tree Consulting:

Here's one I thought striking in the given light.