Description
The bald cypress is a native deciduous tree that is common to the swamps in the southern part of the country. Bald cypress trees are found from coastal Virginia south to the everglades, west to central Texas and up the Mississippi valley to southern Illinois. They grow natively in swamps and flood plains. Scatterings of Bald cypress can be found in nearly all the eastern half of the US. Flourishing in zones as warm as 11, it can also do well in colder parts of our country. There are some isolated stands of bald cypress in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Bald cypress trees have been used for years in residential and city plantings. Reaching heights of fifty to eighty feet in most cases, but in really favorable conditions it can grow as tall as 150 feet. A mature bald cypress will often have no branches for the first 35 feet or so of its trunk and the branches are often either horizontal or swooping down. Roots will often form a knee shape above the water and go down quite far into the earth to secure the tree in a rather soggy environment.
Needles on the bald cypress are deciduous, around 3/4″ long and flat. Woody cones produced are in a spherical shape with a diameter of 1″, growing singularly or in pairs. Bald cypress flowers are small, showy, near the end of last year’s growth, purplish and scaly. The pollinating cones are 8″ long dangling catkins opening before the leaves emerge. The bald cypress is susceptible to the gall mite but is mainly pest free.
