Formerly under Chamaecyparis and sometimes classified as Callitropsis or Xanthocyparis. The nomenclature is still not definitively settled. It's complicated.
High humidity preferred; may benefit from afternoon shade in hot-summer climates. Stoecklein says it tolerates wet soil, but no one else corroborates this, so I hesitate to tag it as such given the general cultural preferences of its relatives, especially considering that Cal Poly calls it susceptible to Phytophthora root rot.
Pollen may be allergenic. Foliage smells unpleasant when crushed.
Despite the semi-weeping nature of most specimens I have seen, I much prefer the look to that of the overused Picea abies (Norway spruce).
The USDA claims that this tree can actually resprout even from a coppicing, but this is such an extraordinary claim for a conifer that I cannot tag it as such until I find some other source that corroborates it (NCSU directly contradicts it). Outside of yews and hemlocks, the only other conifers I know of (in this database) to resprout thus are Cryptomeria, Pinus rigida, and Picea sitchensis.
'Pendula' has received the PHS Gold Medal Award, and it is apparently so much more common than the species here in the East that I cannot ignore it in choosing the other tags to apply either; however, the name may be in use for multiple clones in the trade. 'Glauca' is blue-green, dense, and more solid. 'Variegata' has splashes of yellow and is moderately dense.
Sources: UFL, Sunset, Cal Poly, Stoecklein, UConn, AHS, NCSU, USDA, Dirr/Warren.
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