Taxodium distichum

Bald cypress is the great deciduous conifer of the southern swamp, a long-lived, stately tree of river margins, bottomlands, and blackwater sloughs across the southern United States, and one of the most beautiful native trees the region has to offer. Soft, feathery, two-ranked needles clothe the branches in a light, bright green through summer, then turn a warm russet-orange and fall, leaving a broad, pyramidal frame bare for winter.

The species name distichum describes those two-ranked, feather-like leaves, and the swamp habit gives bald cypress the feature everyone knows: the knees, woody knobs that rise from the roots in standing water, thought to help the tree breathe or anchor in soft ground. Bald cypress is astonishingly long-lived, and some individuals in southern swamps are well over a thousand years old, among the oldest trees in eastern North America.

For all the association with water, bald cypress grows perfectly well on ordinary upland soil once established, and thrives as a lawn specimen, a park tree, or even a street tree where there is room to spread. The light, dappled shade of the fine foliage welcomes lawn and underplanting, the fall color is dependable, and the fluted trunk and spreading buttresses grow more striking with age. A valuable timber tree as well, prized for rot-resistant wood.

Give bald cypress full sun and a moist to wet soil, though the tree will take average garden ground and even periodic flooding in stride. Site at a pond edge, in a rain garden, in a low, wet spot, or as a large specimen where the broad frame and russet fall color have room, and pair with other moisture-loving natives. Fast-growing, trouble-free, and a tree to plant for generations.