Bald Cypress

Younger specimens have a conical shape, but older trees tend to flatten out at the top. In some areas, the strangler fig (Ficus aurea)has strangled many mature bald cypress trees--The Corkscrew Swamp is an example of this.



Can be used as a specimen tree, planted in floodplain areas, or planted in relatively moist uplands. Large rain gardens and bioswales. Tolerant of root disturbance, so a candidate for use as a street/parking lot tree.

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water.



Low/no tolerance of salty wind or direct salt spray

Can produce knees, even if grown in uplands.

Attracts seed-eating birds. Valuable as roosting and nesting areas for colonial wading birds.

Riverine swamps, large swamps around lakes. Inundated areas associated with some form of flowing water. Floodplains, sloughs, strands. May be associated with a longer fire return interval than T. ascendens.

• Fall color, Interesting foliage, Hurricane wind resistance
• Larval host for baldcypress sphinx (Isoparce cupressi) moth.