The bald-cypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) L. Richard) is a unique denizen of swampy land in the southeastern U.S. The tree is a conifer bearing its hard, sharply angled seeds in spherical 'cones'. But it is not an evergreen, shedding its fine pinnate leaves in the fall. It is one of the few species of trees capable of growing on permanently saturated to inundated soils, yet the trees grow well when planted on drier sites.

Bald-cypresses growing in wetlands have two distinct characteristics. The base of the trunk becomes buttressed, much larger in diameter than the remainder of the trunk. And the roots produce knees, bark covered aerial extensions that emerge from the soil. As of yet, no one has determined the purpose of the cypress knees.

Bald-cypresses have been logged for construction lumber for over two hundred years. The old-growth lumber was used across the south and mid-west in the late 1800s and early 1900s for construction of homes, barns, and churches. Many of these structures are still standing; old-growth cypress lumber is extremely resistant to decay. The heartwood lumber contains an oil, cypressene, which is thought to provide the decay resistance. Where this lumber has been exposed to weathering, it is faded to a silvery-gray.

Not surprisingly, there are very few of the truly old-growth cypress left. There is a stand in North Carolina where the trees are in excess of a thousand years old, one stand in Louisiana containing "Old Cat" (Cat Island Refuge) estimated at 1,500, and one in Florida, "The Senator", is estimated at 3,500 years, but that may well be a mistaken age.

Logging was not the only cause of the death of the old trees. A fungus, Stereum taxodi, attacks the crown causing brown pocket rot that works down through the heartwood. Eventually the crown is lost and the remaining trunk is hollow. The photographed bald-cypress is hollow from this disease. The fungus only takes out the heartwood and only in living trees; it does not attack heartwood lumber.

The beautiful bald-cypresses are losing ground for a number of reasons. Changes in the hydrology--draining swamps, diverting runoff, and diking rivers--prevents the natural rise and fall of water levels necessary for the germination of cypress seed. Nutria, a rodent introduced from South America, relish cypress seedlings. And the horticultural market demands cypress mulch. Natural stands of the trees are cut, chipped, bagged, and shipped before any large size is attained.

The Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants of the Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida has photographs of the leaves and immature seed cones and a buttressed trunk of a bald-cypress. To view the photographs, click on the link: http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/main.asp?plantID=929

Click on the Images tab, then on the thumbnails to enlarge the images.

The Florida Native Plant Society has produced a brochure "Why Kill a Tree to grow a Flower?" To learn more about the severe habitat destruction taking place, click on the link:

http://www.fnps.org/chapters/suncoast/mulch.pdf

I highly recommend printing a copy to give to those garden center managers that continue to sell cypress mulch.