A species with the parents Chamaecyparis nootkatensis x Cupressus macrocarpa with most cultivars forming vigorous columnar to narrowly conical trees growing extremely rapidly to 20 m or more in 20 years with the branchlets generally flattened. Leaves mostly coarse, slightly spreading and ridged on the back. Cones when present, 1.5-2 cm wide with 8 scales. Seeds usually 5 per scale, warty.
First raised in 1888 at Leighton Hall, the property of a Mr Naylor at Welshpool, Wales, UK, the seed parent being Chamaecyparis nootkatensis which was growing near a Cupressus macrocarpa. Seedlings were transferred to Haggerston Castle in Northumberland by C.J. Leyland. In 1911 the cross was produced a second time when the seed parent was a Monterey Cypress at Leighton Hall. Formal description did not occur until 1925 when Dallimore and Jackson described two plants from Haggerston and one from Leighton. First established as Cupressus x leylandii; the recognition of Chamaecyparis as a separate genus from Cupressus involved the transfer to XCupressocyparis in 1938. The cross has since been repeated and there have been many numbered but unnamed clones produced.
The common name commemorates C. J. Leyland, owner of Haggerston Hall, where the first seedlings were sent.
The Leyland Cypress is an extremely vigorous tree and probably the fastest-growing conifer at about 1 m a year. It first came into general commerce in about the 1930s in the United Kingdom but considerably later in Australia. It will grow in a wide range of soils and can be clipped; it is widely used as a shelter or windbreak but caution is needed for use in the home garden because of its rapid growth to a large size. It will not grow well in Canberra.
Garden origin.
NSW: Sydney (Royal Bot. Gds); Mt Tomah (Bot. Gds); VIC: Melbourne (Royal Bot. Gds, cutting from the original cross were growing inside 'F' Gate in 1993); ACT: Yarralumla (Nsy).
Recognition: Distinctive narrow-conical habit; coarse foliage with ridged leaves slightly spreading, generally most similar to C. nootkatensis but cones larger, c. 1.5-2 cm wide with 8 scales.
Created by: Roger Spencer
