Discovered in 1991 by nurseryman Doug Zylstra at West Covina Wholesale Nursery, Santa Barbara, California. A 'Glauca' for the exceptionally dense, narrow columnar form and tight growth habit without pruning.

The poet Ovid, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, penned this myth: The handsome boy Cyparissus, a favorite of Apollo, accidentally killed a beloved tame stag. His grief and remorse were so inconsolable that he asked to weep forever. He was transformed into Cupressus sempervirens, with the tree's sap as his tears. In another version of the story, the woodland god Silvanus was the divine companion of Cyparissus, and he accidentally killed the stag. When the boy was consumed by grief, Silvanus turned him into a tree, and thereafter carried a branch of cypress as a symbol of mourning.