Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Prostrata' is a ground-hugging, low-growing, widely spreading selection of Hinoki cypress with wide, spreading branches carrying pendulous green foliage that turns bronze in winter in colder climates. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 6 feet (2 m) tall and 4 feet (1.3 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 6 to 8 inches (15 - 20 cm). The pendulous branches are often staked, allowing plants to gain some height. Without staking, plants will tend to stay low and spreading.
This cultivar has been known to cultivation since the 1920s, first described in botanical literature by Murray Hornibrook in Dwarf and Slow-growing Conifers. By 1939, it had been considered to be extinct in cultivation, until P. den Ouden & B.K. Boom wrongly described it in 1965, in Manual of Cultivated Conifers Hardy in the Cold- and Warm-Temperate Zones, as simply 'Prostrata', introducing an illegitimate name to the nursery trade.
It is still thought to be relatively scarce in cultivation.
