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.
Pond cypress is the quieter of the two native bald cypresses, a deciduous conifer closely related to the more widespread Taxodium distichum but smaller, tidier, and distinct in leaf. Where bald cypress wears soft, feather-like foliage, pond cypress carries fine, scale-like leaves pressed close and ascending along the shoots, giving the young tree a narrow, almost columnar, pyramidal outline.
Taxodium mucronatum has shorter leaves and larger cones than Taxodium disticum (which see). Could grow to be a very large tree if well sited as the famous tree "El Tule" in Oaxaca, Mexico is the largest tree in the world (trunk diameter). The native range of this tree is generally given as Mexico north to lower Rio Grande River in Texas. This species is evergreen or nearly so in warmer regions.
