Taxodium distichum

Plant Characteristics

Habit		tree
Height:	⇕	75 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 75.
Width:	⇔	20 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Water:	◍	wet, moist
Features:	✓	evergreen, deciduous
USDA Zones:		6 to 10

Scientific Names

Cupressaceae >

Taxodium >

distichum >

Taxodium distichum (Baldcypress, Bald Cypress, or Swamp Cypress) is a species of conifer native to the southeastern United States.

It is a large tree, reaching 25–40 m (rarely to 44 m) tall and a trunk diameter of 2–3 m, rarely to 5 m. The bark is gray-brown to red-brown, shallowly vertically fissured, with a stringy texture. The leaves are borne on deciduous branchlets that are spirally arranged on the stem but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, 1-2 cm long and 1-2 mm broad; unlike most other species in the family Cupressaceae, it is deciduous, losing the leaves in the winter months, hence the name 'bald'. It is monoecious. Male and female strobili mature in about 12 months; they are produced from buds formed in the late fall, with pollination in early winter. The seed cones are green maturing gray-brown, globular, 2-3.5 cm in diameter. They have from 20–30 spirally arranged four-sided scales, each bearing one or two (rarely three) trianglular seeds. The number of seeds per cone ranges from 20–40. The cones disintegrate when mature to release the large seeds. The seeds are 5-10 mm long, the largest of any species in the cypress family, and are produced every year but with heavy crops every three to five years. The seedlings have 3–9 (most often 6) cotyledons.

The main trunks are surrounded by cypress knees .

Read about Taxodium distichum in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Taxodium distichum, Rich. (Cupressus disticha, Linn. Schubertia disticha, Mirbel). Bald Cypress. Deciduous Cypress. Tall deciduous tree, becoming 150 feet high, with a buttressed trunk usually 4-5, but sometimes attaining 12 ft. or more in diam., usually hollow in old age; bark light cinnamon-brown, flaky: branches erect or spreading, distichously ramified, forming a narrow pyramidal head, becoming at maturity broad and rounded, with slightly pendulous branches: lvs. narrowly linear, acute, thin, light green, 1/2 – 3/4 in. long: panicles of the purplish staminate fls. 4-5 in. long: cone almost globose, rugose, about 1 in. across and destitute of mucros at maturity, seed 1/4 in. long. March-May. Del. to Fla., west to Mo. and Texas, in swamps, along the larger rivers and over calcareous rocks.—An interesting natural variety is: Var. imbricarium, Nutt. (T. adscendens, Brongn. T. microphyllum, Brongn. T. distichum var. erectifrons, Schelle). Smaller tree with deeply furrowed bark: branches upright: lvs. subulate, 1/5 – 1/2 in. long, more or less upright and rather appressed. Va. to Fla. and Ala., in lakes, ponds, small rivers, apparently always over a clay subsoil. A form of the preceding variety with pendulous branches. Var. pyramidatum, Carr. Narrow pyramidal form with short ascending branches. Var. fastigiatum, Knight. With slender, upright, virgate branches sparingly ramified. Var. nanum, Carr. Dwarf, shrubby form, with numerous short branches. Var. nutans, Ait. Branches spreading, long and slender, nodding at the tips. F.E. 29:9 (as T. distichum pendulum). Var. microphyllum, Carr. Shrub, with short spreading branches; the lateral branchlets with typical foliage, those of the longer branches gradually passing toward the end into small, scale-like, imbricate lvs. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

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