Taxodium distichum

(Linnaeus) Richard 1810

Common names

Baldcypress, cypress, swamp cypress.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Cupressus disticha Linnaeus 1753 (Watson 1993). Two varieties, distichum, imbricatum (often spelled imbricarium).

Description

Monoecious, deciduous or semi-deciduous trees to 40 m tall and 3 m dbh, usually with a single straight trunk, a broad base, and often with brown, woody “knees” projecting up to 1 m from the ground nearby; forming a pyramidal crown that flattens in old trees. Bark light brown, turning grey, exfoliating in long, thin strips. Shoots dimorphic, slender, green to light brown, each year’s growth consisting of a single indeterminate long shoot with multiple determinate lateral short shoots. Leaves variably deciduous (with the shoot, as is general in Cupressaceae) depending on location (short or long shoots) and climate; winter-deciduous in temperate areas, but lasting a year or more in subtropical areas. In swamp cypress (variety distichum) leaves are in 2 ranks, 10-17 mm long; in pond cypress (variety imbricarium) the leaves are tightly appressed to the branchlet and 3-10 mm long. Seed cones round, 1.5-4 cm diameter, green and fleshy when young, at maturity brown and woody with 5-10 seed scales (Watson 1993 and pers. obs.).

Range

USA: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; Mexico; Guatemala (Watson 1993, Thompson et al. 1999), in riparian and wetland habitats. Also widely planted as an ornamental, for instance, in Oregon and Washington.

Big tree

See var. distichum.

Oldest

A crossdated age of 1622 years for specimen BCK 69 from NC collected by Stahle, Cleaveland, and Hehr (Brown 1996). I believe this is from a living tree, collected in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Dendrochronology

The oldest tree was found in the course of a dendrochronological investigation of Black River Swamp baldcypress groves in North Carolina.

Ethnobotany

A valuable timber tree. The knees are frequently used for curved members in the construction of wooden boats (Encarta 1997).

This was one of the first New World species brought home to England, introduced there by Tradescant in 1637 (Folsom 2003).

Observations

Have seen it at the Black River Swamp in southeast North Carolina (near Moores Creek National Battlefield), where some specimens are up to 130 cm in diameter above a butt swell that extends 3-4 m up the trunk. All the trees in the area have lost their tops in past hurricanes and are, like the neighboring hardwoods, only 20 to 30 m tall, but some specimens have yielded core samples containing over 1600 rings. Old-growth baldcypress forest can also be found in Congaree Swamp National Park, South Carolina; in the Okefenokee Swamp on the Georgia-Florida border; and in various other protected areas.

Remarks

Its roots form "knees" that extend above the water. Of all trees, it has perhaps the greatest known tolerance for flooding; trees planted at Blue River reservoir in Oregon are submerged for several months each year, including about half of the growing season.

Baldcypress is the state tree of Louisiana (Watson 1993).

Citations

Folsom, J. (ed.). 2003. Plant Trivia TimeLine. PlantEd, Huntington Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108-1299.

National Park Service. 1995. Congaree Swamp Official Map and Guide. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office [Paintings by John Dawson].

Van Pelt, Robert. 1998. Telephone communication 1998.11.14 from Robert Van Pelt, who measured these trees in November 1998.

See also

Farjon (2005).

Prasad and Iverson (1999).