Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Bald cypress is a large tree which may reach heights of 100 to 150 feet. The trunk is usually buttressed and fluted at the base in extremely wet areas. It has a pyramidal-shaped crown when it is young that gradually becomes flat-topped with age. When growing in water, it has shallow roots that often arise from the soil in the shape of cones called pneumatophores, or "knees." |
| Leaves: | Individual leaves are 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, but it is the branchlets (rather than the individual leaves) that drop off the trees. |
| Twigs: | The terminal twigs are light green through the growing season, becoming reddish-brown during the winter. |
| Bark: | The reddish brown to ashy gray bark is thin and peels in narrow vertical strips. |
| Pollen cones: | Pollen is produced in small, purplish-brown pollen cones on long "threads" that dangle from the tips of the branches. |
| Seed cones: | 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. |
Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List:
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