Taxonomy
Its taxonomic status is disputed by different authors. Some treat Cupressus pygmaea as a distinct species, following Sargent, including Wolf (1948), Griffin & Critchfield (1976), Lanner (1999), and Little et al. (2004), while others treat it within Cupressus goveniana as either a variety (C. goveniana var. pigmaea Lemmon) or a subspecies (C. goveniana subsp. pigmaea (Lemmon) A.Camus), including Camus (1914), and the Jepson Manual (1993), and yet others do not distinguish it at all within C. goveniana, including the Flora of North America and Farjon (2005).
It has also more recently been transferred, along with the other New World Cupressus taxa, to the genus Callitropsis as Callitropsis pygmaea (Lemmon) D.P.Little by Little (2006).
The scientific name is sometimes spelled pygmaea, though this is an orthographic error.
Read more about this topic: Cupressus Pigmaea