Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean or Italian Cypress is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southeast Greece (Crete, Rhodes), southern Turkey, Cyprus, western Syria, Lebanon, Israel and western Jordan, and also a disjunct population in Iran. It is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a conic crown with level branches and variably pendulous branchlets. It is very long-lived, with some trees reported to be over 1,000 years old. The foliage grows in dense sprays, dark green in colour. The leaves are scale-like, 2-5 mm long, and produced on rounded (not flattened) shoots. The species name sempervirens comes from the Latin for ‘evergreen’.