Wooden Wonders part ten: Lawson's cypress

Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, is full of magnificent trees.

As part of our half term Wooden Wonders event taking place from 14 – 16 February, Kate Cashmore from Westonbirt’s learning team has created a trail which will help you find out about our hidden wonders.

Here, she highlights some of the Wooden Wonders that you can discover when you follow the trail.

Lawson's cypress is a conifer native to Oregon and California in the Western USA.

Its wood is light but strong and rot-resistant. The straight grain makes it very suitable for arrow shafts.

In Japan it is in demand for shrines and temples and also coffins.

Trees like this store carbon from the atmosphere and help reduce climate change. The publicly owned forest (including Westonbirt) stores about ¼ of England’s annual emissions of greenhouse gases. Wooden items still store the carbon.

The wood of the Lawson's Cypress is said to smell of ginger – see what you think when you follow our Wooden Wonders trail (14 - 16 February).

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