Thanks, Andrew,

My experience with taxodium, in 1965, was a second-hand float we bought
from a YMCA day camp in Marblehead to store four 5-0-5 trapeze boats in
Marblehead harbor. I was unaware that it had any resemblance to
cupressus sempervirens, which I used for my first harpsichord in 1972.
This is the first I have heard of any relation between them.

Maybe I should have bought the float and sawed it up, but I wasn't
thinking of making harpsichords then. I have later had no compunctions
about recycling wood. I split a column from a ca 1800 loft building of
eastern white spruce with a froe and maul to make soundboards in the mid
70s. I know it was spruce because it had a pitch-pocket.   

-- 
 Rodney Myrvaagnes
  [log in to unmask]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2016, at 00:11, Andrew Bernard wrote:
> Greetings Rodney,
> 
> Depends what you mean by cypress, and what you mean by real. :-)
> 
> Monterey Cypress is Cupressus macrocarpa, native to California. Swamp
> Cypress is Taxodium distichum, native to South Eastern United States.
> [There are probably dozens of trees known as swamp cypress because they
> like swamps!]
> 
> Both are members of the family Cupressaceae [cypress]. Cypress is a huge
> family with over 10,000 species, all similar of course (that’s the
> point).
> 
> Many are good tone woods.
> 
> But … I see what you may mean because Cupressaceae were for a long time
> regarded as distinct from the Taxodiaceae, but are now agreed to be one:
> 
> From wikipedia:
> 
> The family Cupressaceae is now widely regarded as including the
> Taxodiaceae
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxodiaceae>, previously treated as a
> distinct family, but now shown not to differ from the Cupressaceae in any
> consistent characteristics.
> 
> 
> Andrew
> 
> 
> On 27 June 2016 at 8:41:08 AM, Rodney Myrvaagnes ([log in to unmask])
> wrote:
> 
> Monterey is real cypress. Swamp cypress is a totally unrelated species.
> 
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