Quiet Bear said:
I have used cypress bark (Taxodium spp.) a few times for tinder and it worked OK if I remember correctly. I have used cypress bark more for cordage and it does well for that..
This is another good exmple of how common names can be confusing!
When explorers and settlers came to America from England, they ran into a lot of unfamiliar plants, some of which they gave names from out of the Bible such as laurel, myrtle, cedar, and cypress. The plants known by these names in the U.S. generally are not close relatives of their old-world Biblical namesakes.
To most Americans, "cypress" means the bald cypress or similar trees (Taxodium species to botanists). Yet the English-language name "cypress" was originally applied to a group of trees (Cupressus spp. to botanists) related to junipers, in particular the species in the Mediterreanean region such as the Italian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). These Mediterranean cypresses are the ones referred to in the Bible. The scientific name for these trees, Cupressus, is straight from the Latin word for them, and is the source of our word cypress.
Thus, from a botanical standpoint the Taxodium "cypresses" in the southeastern U.S. are not true cypresses. They're actually close relatives of the redwood in California. You could think of them as swamp redwoods or bald (deciduous) redwoods. However, the name cypress is deeply entrenched and very traditional for these trees so it's not about to change. BTW, the California redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) also has stringy bark that ought to make good cordage, though it's supposed to be pretty fire-resistant.
Meanwhile, in California and Arizona we have several species of true cypress such as Cupressus arizonica, the Arizona cypress. When I posed the question earlier of whether anyone had tried cypress bark that's what I meant, forgetting that there's another quite different "cypress" out there in another part of the country.
Quiet Bear said:
Yes, scientific names are great, particularly if you travel. Dendrology (tree and plant id) is a hobby of mine. When I used to travel around the southeast and work with other foresters, rangers, etc., it always amazed me how many different common names there were for the same tree or plant. Or how many different species can be called "haw".
I was in a museum in Mexico, looking at an exhibit of plant parts used by Indians, and I didn't recognize the Spanish-language names... but to my joy they had the scientific names as well, so I could know from which plant the various seeds, fibers, etc. came from. Handy!
Bill D.
