(Taxodium distichum)

The bald cypress is a gorgeous deciduous conifer native to the southeastern United States.

The bald cypress lives in East Texas, Southeast Texas, and Central Texas, growing on riverbanks, bottomlands, and in swamps that are flooded for long periods of time. They are also widely planted as a landscape tree.

It is a large, slow-growing, tree that typically grows to heights of 35–120 feet and has a trunk diameter of 3–8 feet. Young trees display a narrow, conical outline. Older trees have a swollen, fluted base, a slowly tapering trunk, and a broad, open, flat top.

Hardy and tough, the bald cypress adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy. This tree grows best in wet or well-drained soil; but it can tolerate dry soil too. It is able to grow near salt water. It does well in acidic neutral and alkaline soils across the full range of light (sandy), medium (loamy), and heavy (clay) soils. It can also grow in saline soils.

The slender, light green leaves are flattened, about 0.5 inches to 0.75 inches long, narrow, and arranged in feather-like fashion along two sides of small branchlets that are 2-4 inches long. They are deciduous in the autumn with the leaves still attached. Fall color is yellow or copper red.

In swamps they develop distinctive woody growths called "knees" from the roots that protrude from the ground. Central Texas trees of this species do not produce the “knees”.

The bark is silvery to cinnamon-red, with papery scales on branches but developing larger flat-topped ridges and numerous longitudinal fissures with age.

This tree produces a rounded cone that is about 1 inch in diameter. It is greenish with a waxy coating. The tree produces cones in April and the seeds ripen in October. Each cone contains 20 to 40 large seeds. The cones disintegrate at maturity to release the seeds. The seeds are produced every year, with heavy crops every 3–5 years. The cones are often consumed by wildlife.

The bald cypress grows in full sun or partial shade.

The tallest known specimen is 145 feet tall.

The broadest tree in Texas is in Real County, Texas, and has a circumference of 39 feet.

The oldest known living specimen is at least 2,600 years old.

The National Champion Bald Cypress is in the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, in Louisiana. It is 96 feet tall, 56 feet in circumference, and is estimated to be 1,500 years old.

The bald cypress is the official state tree of Louisiana.