Bald Cypres

Bald Cypress

(Taxodium distichum)

Bald cypress is a large, slow-growing but long-lived, deciduous conifer, which frequently reaches 100 to 120 feet in height and 3 to 6 feet in diameter. Its trunk is massive, tapered and buttressed. The leaves are alternate, linear and flat with blades generally spreading around the twig. The bark is thin and fibrous with an interwoven pattern of narrow flat ridges and narrow furrows. Its male and female flowers form slender tassle-like structures near the edge of the branchlets. Bald cypress trees produces cone fruit, and there are approximately 5,200 seeds per pound. It develops a taproot as well as horizontal roots that lie just below the surface and extend 20 to 50 feet before bending down. It develops knees that grow above water providing additional support.

Leaf: Linear and small, 1/4 to 3/4 inch long, generally appearing two-ranked. When growing on deciduous branchlets the leaf-deciduous branchlet structure resembles a feathery pinnately (or bi-pinnately) compound leaf; green to yellow-green.

Flower: Males in drooping, long panicles; females are subglobose, have peltate scales, and tend to occur near the end of branches.

Fruit: Cones are composed of peltate scales forming a woody, brown sphere with rough surfaces, 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter; cones disintegrate into irregular seeds.

Twig: May be deciduous or not; non-deciduous twigs are slender, alternate, brown, rough, with round buds near the end of the twig; deciduous twigs are two-ranked, resembling pinnately compound leaves.

Bark: Fibrous, red-brown but may be gray where exposed to the weather; old, thick bark may appear somewhat scaly.

Form: A large tree with a pyramid-shaped crown, cylindrical bole, fluted or buttressed base and often with knees.

Range: Southern portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including parts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia; specific locations include Maryland’s Battle Creek and Pocomoke River and Virginia’s Chickahominy River.

Growing Conditions: bald cypress is limited by two factors: the need for constant moisture until a sapling root reaches the water table and the need for seasonal flooding to eliminate invading hardwoods. Bald cypress can grow in standing water. It is equally at home under normal garden conditions.

Wildlife value: Its seeds are eaten by wild turkey, wood ducks, evening grosbeak, squirrels, waterfowl, and wading birds. Cypress domes provide unique watering places for a variety of birds and mammals and breeding sites for frogs, toads, salamanders, and other reptiles. Yellow-throated warblers forage in the Spanish moss often found hanging on the branches.

Timber Value: Its wood is valuable for building construction, fence posts, planking in boats, river pilings, doors, blinds, flooring, shingles, garden boxes, caskets, interior trim and cabinetry.

Damaging Agents: Brown pocket rot known as “pecky cypress” which is caused by the fungus Stereum taxodi attacks the heartwood. The forest tent caterpillar (Malacosma disstria) and fruit-tree leafroller (Archips argyrospila) larvae build webs and feed on needles causing dieback and eventually death.

Lifespan: Bald cypress has an average lifespan of 600 years and Maximum lifespan of 1800 years

Sources

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=TADI2

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/bald_cypress

http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_tadi2.pdf

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=117