Cypress swamp in central Florida [©Vladimir Dinets 2006] More photos can be seen HERE (2006.03.22).

Representative painting of an old-growth tree on the floodplain at Congaree Swamp National Park, SC (National Park Service 1995).

Foliage on a tree of var. distichum at the North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC [C.J. Earle, 2004.10].

Immature female cone from a tree at the Sacramento Capitol Arboretum [C.J. Earle].

Trees and cypress 'knees' [Dr. Linda B. Brubaker].

Distribution map (Thompson et al. (1999)).

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

"Trees cladoptosic; trunk enlarged basally and often conspicuously buttressed; crown monopodial and conic when young, often becoming irregularly flattopped or deliquescent (branched and so divided that the main axis cannot be determined) with age. Shoot system conspicuously dimorphic, long shoots indeterminate, bearing individually abscising, linear to lanceolate leaves, short shoots determinate, abscising in autumn with their leaves, variable, intergrading, at one extreme pendent to horizontally spreading, bearing decurrent, narrowly linear and laterally divergent leaves in 2 rows, at other extreme strictly ascending to occasionally pendent, bearing short-lanceolate to deltate and tightly appressed leaves. Pollen cones in pendent panicles to ca. 25 cm, 2-3 mm, conspicuous in winter prior to pollination. Seed cones 1.5-4 cm" (Watson 1993).

Varieties distichum and imbricatum are indistinguishable in reproductive characteristics and continuously intergrading in morphologic and phenologic characteristics, although pure populations of the extremes appear morphologically and ecologically distinct. Var. mexicanum is annually cladoptosic (deciduous of short shoots), with determinate short shoots abscising concomitantly with expansion of shoots of the following year. Specimens from juvenile individuals, stump sprouts, fertile branchlets, terminal vegetative branchlets, or late-season growth may not be determinable to variety (Watson 1993).

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 14-Nov-1998 from Robert Van Pelt, who measured these trees in November 1998.