A fine example of this remarkable cypress grows in the Temperate House at Kew, but when tried out-of-doors in even a very sheltered place, it has never recovered from the effects of the first winter. Its spray is perfectly pendulous, very glaucous, and flat, the branchlets hanging vertically in two opposite ranks. Leaves intermediate in character between the juvenile and adult states of the true cypresses; they are only 1⁄16 to 1⁄12 in. long, but are not scale-like, and have free, somewhat spreading points. Cones about 1⁄2 in. diameter, globose; scales ten, with a triangular, hooked boss in the centre. This cypress is, no doubt, of Asiatic origin, but there appears to be no evidence that it is a native of Kashmir. Henry suggested it may be a juvenile state of C. torulosa. It is a tree of singular beauty both in form and colour. The finest tree in Europe is on Isola Madre, Lake Maggiore, Italy. Cones are freely borne by the tree at Kew, and young plants have been raised from the seed.
In the mildest parts it has proved tolerably hardy, but seems to need more summer heat than our climate can offer. The tallest example known is at Head-fort, Co. Meath, Eire; planted half a century ago it now measures 28 × 5 ft (1966). In Northern Ireland there is a specimen at Castlewellan measuring 22 × 13⁄4 ft (1966), planted in 1946.