The Vietnamese Golden Cypress or Xanthocyparis vietnamensis can be found at What3Words riots.hoping.petal and looks rather un-preposessing.

However, a glance at the accession label reveals that is is anything but. This is a rare and endangered conifer which was has been known to science only since 1999.

The discovery of a living conifer that is so different from others that it is placed in a brand new genus is a very unusual event.

Vietnamese Golden Cypress grows only in a few places in Vietnam, primarily in the Bat Dai Son Nature Reserve, Hagiang Province. A small population is also now known from Mulan National Nature Reserve in Guangxi, China.

This tree grows in cloud forests, generally at above 1000 m on limestone soils. The climate is subtropical with rainfall averages of around 2400 mm per year (so it must be suitable for Glasgow!)

In it’s native range it is threatened with logging. The timber is of high quality, very hard and fragrant, making it highly desirable.

It is thought that there are only about 500-1000 specimens remaining in the wild.

The Vietnamese Golden Cypress reaches about 15m in height, but it is not clear if that is because larger trees have been selectively logged, or if that is it’s natural size.

It is included on the IUCN Redlist as ‘endangered’ as it is known only from five or six sites and has a fragmented distribution, which may affect genetic diversity. Plant cuttings material was collected by Edinburgh Botanics in 2002 as part of the International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP) and this is presumably the source for our Glasgow specimen.

Conifers are often difficult to grow from seed but recently Forest Research have had some success with Vietnamese Golden Cypress at Bedgebury Arboretum in Kent. The aim of the ICCP is to promote conifer conservation globally.