The Monterey cypress which span the eastern side of the cemetery started out as Cupressus macrocarpa which roughly translates as cypress tree with large fruit.
DNA advances now place the tree in a different genus, Hesperocyparis. Hesperocyparis means Western cypress tree. The common name Monterey denotes where it is from, the central coast of California, though it has naturalised world wide.
The tree is adapted to salt-laden winds, cool sea-fret summers and mild winters which is why it became a popular seaside plant and widely grown in the UK.
The three veterans at Heene are planted improbably close to graves which suggests a random act of nature, perhaps a squirrel, though cypress trees are long associated with grief, the underworld and thus cemeteries.
With spreading limbs and an irregular crown, Monterey cypress are fast growing but not long lived. Adur and Worthing Council have taken out a central dead branch from one and revealed another as suffering from canker. An inspiration for artists, port for birds and provider of seed cones for small mammals, two of these aromatic visitors are now approaching the end of their stay.
Phillipa Mathews