Cypress
Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.
Also known as Baldcypress.
Mature Size: 90 to 120 feet in height and 3 to 6 feet in diameter.
Form: Straight, slowly tapering trunk with a broad, fluted base; numerous uplifted branches and a narrow cone-shaped crown.
Habitat: Wet stream banks, wet bottomlands, swamps and other areas that usually flood for long periods of time.
Needles
½ to ¾ inches long, arranged featherlike along two sides of small branchlets, which fall in autumn with the leaves still attached. On rapidly growing branchlets, the leaves are scale-like and much shorter.
Flowers
Males in long, drooping clusters; females rounded, scaled, clustered near the end of branches.
Cones
Globe-shaped, 1 inch across, with thick, irregular scales, brown at maturity, shattering into irregular seeds.
Bark
Dark reddish brown to silvery brown, shredded lengthwise, with a fibrous appearance.
Twigs
Non-deciduous twigs slender, alternate, brown, rough, with round buds near the ends; deciduous twigs two-sided, resembling pinnately compound leaves.
Values and Uses
Baldcypress wood is light, soft and easily worked, with creamy sapwood and brown heartwood. Because it is particularly resistant to decay, baldcypress has been used for exterior trim of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat building, shingles, posts, poles and crossties. Cypress swamps provide important habitat for many wetland wildlife species. Seeds are eaten by turkeys, squirrels and waterfowl. Bald eagles and ospreys nest in the tops of large trees, and cavity-nesting birds use decaying trees. Catfish are known to spawn in the hollowed, sunken logs. Cypress stands reduce flooding along rivers by slowing and absorbing water.
Did You Know?
A baldcypress may live more than 1,000 years. It is one of the few deciduous conifers. The tree's root system often produces irregular cone-shaped structures, called "knees," that rise above the ground or water's surface. A related species, pondcypress (T. distichum var. nutans), has short, scale-like needles.
