Japanese Umbrella Pine

tree with evergreen upright branchlets of needle leaves that grow in spirals


Sciadopitys verticillata
AKA Koyo-maki (Japan)
  • evergreen tree
  • very slow-growing and upright
  • fibrous red-brown bark
  • whorls of dark-green needle like leaves
  • small oval cones

H 12m
W 4-8 m
20yrs

full sun
part shade
sheltered

moist well-drained


Info: many known species of Umbrella pines were destroyed in the third ice age but the warm volcanic soils of the Kiso valley in Japan sustained the one species: Sciatopitys Verticillata. Classed as a “living fossil”as records show that it dates back 230 million years
“Koyo” (紅葉) refers to the autumn leaf colour changes but this is an evergreen tree!

Notes: Purchased mail order 2020 to pot up for the proposed Japanesque garden design