Summary ²

Bald cypress trees can grow 100-150 ft. tall and 3-6 or more ft. in diameter and can live up to 600 years. Narrowly to broadly pyramidal when young, bald cypress eventually develops into a broad-topped, spreading, open specimen when mature. The trunk is usually buttressed and fluted at the base in extremely wet areas. When growing in water, it has shallow roots that often arise from the soil in the shape of cones called pneumatophores, or "knees.". Individual leaves are pale green, narrow and linear, with a sharply pointed tip. Each leaf is about one-eighth of an inch wide and ½" to ¾" long. The leaves are alternate and 2-ranked, meaning that they spread out on either side of the branchlet like a feather. The foliage is deciduous in the fall turning a brilliant coppery red before dropping, but it is the branchlets (rather than the individual leaves) that drop off the trees. The reddish brown to ashy gray bark is thin and peels in narrow vertical strips. Pollen is produced in small, purplish-brown pollen cones on long "threads" that dangle from the tips of the branches. Seeds are held in a spherical cone that is about ¾" to 1" in diameter. The cones are wrinkled, with club-shaped, leathery, yellowish-brown scales and can be solitary or in clusters. Upon maturity, the cones become woody and the shield-shaped scales that originally fit closely together begin to shrink and pull apart, allowing the seeds to escape. The seeds are irregularly 3-angled and 3-winged. Cypress trees tend to grow in forested wetlands, along streams and rivers, in spring runs and ponds, and in places with still or slow-moving water. Cypresses are the most flood-tolerant of all Florida's trees, which is why they dominate swamps that have long flood periods.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) t_kok, all rights reserved
2. (c) t_kok, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

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