Department of Applied Environmental Science
March 2014
Ever wondered where the rarest cypress tree in the world grows??? Students in BIO 342, Plant Communities of California, hike into a grove of pygmy Gowen cypress trees (Hesperocyparis goveniana) during one of their many landscape ecology field trips through the natural lab around CSUMB. This endemic cypress occurs naturally in only two small groves inland from Carmel Bay, where the pygmy trees can be more than two-hundred years old and only 5-feet tall. BIO 342 students practice plant identification skills and keying out interesting Maritime Chaparral species associated with Gowen cypress in the shallow, acidic and nutrient-poor soils typical of the ancient granitic marine terraces found on the Monterey Peninsula.
Story: Nikki Nedeff