Cupressus glabra Sudworth, 1910

In 1895 Professor Taumey appeared at that time to doubt that the cypresses found at Pine Creek were the same as those present in the Chiricahua Mountains (Cupressus arizonica). He noted that in the Pine Creek trees the bark "peeled off in long shreds", a character not observed in the Chiricahua cypresses. Arthur H. Zachau, who had seen the Chiricahua and Verde River cypresses, noted the marked difference in the barks of these trees and called George Bishop Sudworth's attention in 1907. The few settlers who observed these cypresses called them "Jew wood", because their smooth purple-red bark resembled that of the north-western Jew (Taxus brevifolia). G. B. Sudworth, dendrologist of the Forest Service and predecessor agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1886 until his death in 1927, studied the cypresses at Verde River Canyon in Yavapai County, Arizona, and published the original description of C. glabra in 1910, enclosing photographs of twigs and cones. The specific epithet "glabra", derived from the Latin "glaber", referred to the very thin smooth dark purple-red bark, contrasting with the rough furrowed bark of C. arizonica characterized by a grey-brown colour. E. L. Little, while working in Arizona from 1931 to 1941, learned of the uncertainty among local foresters that C. glabra sometimes developed furrowed bark on very large trunks. For this reason, Little reduced C. glabra to a variety of C. arizonica. C. glabra, commonly known as Smooth cypress, is a handsome, stemple-shaped evergreen that can grow from 9 to 15 m in height and 3.5 to 4.5 m in width. It grows naturally in the mountains of Central Western Arizona on rocky or gravely soils in canyons from 900 to 1700 m asl.