BaldCypress – Taxodium distichum

Large, needle-leaf, aquatic, deciduous tree often with cone-shaped “knees” projecting from submerged roots, with trunks enlarged at base and spreading into ridges or buttresses, and with a crown of widely spreading branches, flattened at top.

Height: 100-120’ or more. / Diameter: 3-5’

Needles: deciduous; less than an inch long; crowded and featherlike; flat, soft, flexible. Dull light green above, whitish beneath; turning brown and shedding in fall. Bark: brown or gray; long fibrous or scaly ridges; peeling off in strips. Cones: round, gray, about an inch in diameter.

Habitat: Very wet, swampy soils of riverbanks and floodplain lakes that are sometimes submerged. Range: Southeastern US.

Called the “wood eternal” because of the heartwood’s resistance to decay, Baldcypress is used for heavy construction, including docks, warehouses, boats, bridges, as well as general millwork and interior trim. The trees are planted as ornamentals northward in colder climates and in drier soils.