Swamp Cypress

The Taxodium Distichum is commonly known as Baldcypress, Cypress, Gulf Cypress, Pondcypress, Red Cypress, Southern Cypress, Swamp Cypress, White Cypress, as well as Yellow Cypress

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Growing Regions

Baldcypress grows along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from southern Delaware to southern Florida, westward along the lower Gulf Coast Plain to southeastern Texas almost to the Mexican border. Inland, it grows along streams of the Southeastern States and north in the Mississippi Valley to southeastern Oklahoma, southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southwestern Indiana [11,18,36]. It is cultivated in Hawaii [55]. Pondcypress is generally confined to areas from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida and southeastern Louisiana [11,18,36].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for baldcypress is Taxodium distichum L. [34]. The species is divided into two commonly recognized varieties which are differentiated by habitat and morphology. Habitat: Taxodium distichum var. nutans (Ait.) Sweet, commonly known as pondcypress, grows in shallow ponds and wet areas westward only to southeastern Louisiana. It does not usually grow in rivers or stream swamps. Taxodium distichum var. distichum (L.) Rich., baldcypress, is more widespread and typical of the species. Its range extends westward into Texas and northward into Illinois and Indiana [12,53] Morphology: Pondcypress is less likely than baldcypress to have knees, and when it does have them, they are shorter and more rounded. Its fluted base tends to have rounded rather than sharp ridges and its bark is usually more coarsely ridged. Its branches are more ascending than those of baldcypress. Seedlings and fast-growing shoots of pondcypress, however are much like typical baldcypress. Despite the usual differences in the two varieties, it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish them [39,53]. The name cypress is used in this write-up when referring to both varieties collectively.

Baldcypress has been included as an indicator or dominant in the
following vegetation types:

The phytosociology of the Green Swamp, North Carolina [32]
Southern mixed hardwood forest of northcentral Florida [38]
Plant communities in the marshlands of southeastern Louisiana [41]
Plant communitiers of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina and their
   successional relations [52].

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