Bald Cypress

(Taxodiaceae - Bald Cypress or Taxodium Family)

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• Form
  • large shade tree
  • maturing at about 70' tall by 30' wide under urban conditions, but much larger in the wild (where in the Deep South it may have Spanish Moss hanging from its branches)
  • upright pyramidal growth habit for most of its life, sometimes becoming upright conical or upright spreading with age
  • rapid growth rate

• Culture
  • full sun to partial sun
  • performs best in full sun under humid conditions in moist, sandy-loam, acidic soils, but is quite adaptable to permanently wet or very dry soils, heavy soils, soils of alkaline pH, heat, and drought
  • propagated by seeds, rooted cuttings, or grafting of cultivars onto seedling understock
  • Bald Cypress Family, with several minor disease and pest problems, usually not of any ornamental significance
  • moderately available, primarily in ball and burlap form but increasingly in container form
  • Bald Cypress is somewhat sensitive to being transplanted in Autumn, and care should be taken to amend the soil, fertilize, water thoroughly, mulch adequately, and avoid Winter salt spray, to enhance survival chances during the first Winter

• Foliage
  • appearing pinnately compound but not so: actually, the miniature needle-like leaves are spirally arranged and doubly ranked along deciduous branchlets, with the branchlets themselves arranged in a mostly alternate to spiral (but sometimes opposite) fashion on the true woody stems
  • leaves are linear and very fine textured, about 0.5" long and 1/16" wide, emerging golden-green in Spring, changing to medium green in Summer, and becoming an attractive cinnamon-brown in Autumn before abscising with the branchlets in November
  • shade is filtered and dappled from a young tree, but rather dense from a mature tree

• Flowers
  • monoecious; the staminate (male) immature inflorescences of Autumn and Winter expand to 4" long catkins in late Winter and early Spring, while the pistillate (female) flowers are ornamentally insignificant
  • blooming heavily in March and April on mature trees (but sparsely on young trees), with the staminate flowers elongating and swaying in the breezes

• Fruits
  • 1" brown cones mature in one year, but often go relatively unnoticed, appearing as knobs in the tree canopy

• Twigs
  • true stems are light green and thin, becoming brown with age, having prominently rounded and sunken branchlet scars arranged in a predominately alternate or spiral pattern

• Trunk
  • trunk is very straight with a strong central leader, slowly tapering to the apex, usually with highly symmetrical branching in a pyramidal silhouette
  • branches are numerous, of relatively thin caliper, at right angles to the trunk (except in the uppermost reaches of the canopy, where they ascend), and do not have sunken "armpits" under their points of attachment to the trunk, as do branches of Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
  • in old age, species variation may occur (especially in the wild), and some trees develop a rounded or wide-spreading upper canopy
  • bark exfoliates in thin red-brown or cinnamon strips and is subtlely ornamental
  • buttressing "knees" may develop and rise above the water and nearby wet soil, if the roots are submerged in water

• ID Summary
  • deciduous conifer of rapid growth, with a very strong central leader and narrow pyramidal outline, with deciduous branchlets having ultra fine-textured, needle-like leaves that turn a cinnamon brown in Autumn before abscission
  • Winter stems have mostly spiraling or alternate, rounded and sunken branchlet scars, while the similar-looking Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) Winter stems have mostly opposite stalked buds and subtle branchlet scars
  • knees may rise from roots submerged in water, and the bark is reddish-brown and subtley exfoliates in thin, long strips
  • thin-calipered and numerous branches are at right angles to the trunk (except at the apex of the canopy, where they ascend) and do not have the sunken "armpits" underneath their point of attachment, as do the branches of Dawn Redwood
  • Bald Cypress is rather shade intolerant, and so it naturally limbs itself up as its lower branches die from self-shading, while Dawn Redwood quite often will branch and foliage nearly to the ground, with its largest caliper limbs being at the base of the canopy

• Function
  • specimen, focal point, or group planting tree, in both wet and dry sites

• Texture
  • fine texture in foliage and when bare
  • average density in foliage and when bare

• Assets
  • stately and formal year-round appearance, being a strongly pyramidal focal point that maintains its central leader throughout its life (actually a deciduous conifer)
  • rapid growth and establishment
  • wet site loving and dry site adaptable
  • ultra fine-textured foliage (resulting in dappled shade in youth) and fine-textured true stems
  • exfoliating strips of subtlely ornamental cinnamon bark
  • rich cinnamon-brown Autumn leaf color
  • leaf cleanup in Autumn is minimal or not needed
  • catkins in late Winter and early Spring are attractive on mature trees as they sway in the wind
  • bark and wood is processed from natural stands in the southeastern United States as a slow-decaying, orange-brown mulch

• Liabilities
  • taproot system makes ball and burlap transplant success difficult with larger caliper saleable trees (hence the practices of field root-pruning of saplings while in production, or growing in containers, should alleviate this problem)

• Habitat
  • zones 5 to 9
  • found in scattered groves in wet areas of the eastern United States from zones 5 through 9, but until recently it occurred in nearly pure stands in the swamps, rivers, everglades, and bayous of the southeastern United States, where most of this virgin timber has now been harvested for cypress mulch production

• Alternates
  • stately pyramidal trees of deciduous foliage (Alnus glutinosa, Liquidambar styraciflua, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Oxydendrum arboreum, etc.) or evergreen foliage (Abies concolor, Picea abies, Picea pungens, Pinus strobus 'Fastigiata', Tsuga canadensis, etc.)
  • trees that perform very well in both dry or wet sites (Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Gleditsia triacanthos, Quercus palustris, Salix alba, etc.)
  • trees with fine texture, at least when in foliage (Gleditsia triacanthos, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Quercus phellos, Salix babylonica, etc.)
  • trees that grow and establish rapidly (Acer x freemanii, Betula nigra, Liriodendron tulipifera, Populus deltoides, Quercus acutissima, etc.)
  • other deciduous conifers (Larix, Metasequoia, & Pseudolarix)

• Variants
  • Taxodium distichum 'Shawnee Brave' - more narrow in width than the species form, to 75' tall by 20' wide at maturity

• Translation
  • this tree is appropriately termed a deciduous conifer, since it sheds its foliage in Autumn but is a member of the cone-bearing Taxodiaceae.
  • Taxodium translates as "resembling a Taxus", referring to the appearance of the slightly flattened linear foliage of both genera.
  • distichum translates as "two-ranked," referring to the pectinate arrangement of leaves along the deciduous branchlets.

• Purpose
  • Bald Cypress is a deciduous conifer, prized for its stately pyramidal growth habit, wet or dry site tolerance, rapid growth rate, and fine texture.

• Summary
  • Taxodium distichum is a very symmetrical, pyramidal, stately tree that tolerates very dry to very wet sites, with fine-textured, medium green Summer foliage, good orange-brown fall color, subtlely ornamental exfoliating bark, and late Winter catkins that sway in the wind.