Swamp Cypress

The swamp cypress, or bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), is a deciduous conifer of the family Cupressaceae with needle-like leaves 1.3 to 1.9 centimeters long that turn yellow or copper-red in autumn, grayish-brown to reddish-brown thin, fibrous bark, a buttressed trunk base, and distinctive woody root growths called cypress knees in swampy ground. It typically grows 10 to 40 meters tall with a trunk 0.9 to 2.1 meters across, and the tallest known specimen, near Williamsburg, Virginia, reaches 145 feet. It is native to the southeastern United States, from southeastern New Jersey south to Florida, west to central Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, and inland along the Mississippi River. It tolerates flooding, drought, and wet, salty, or swampy soils, can live more than 1,000 years, and was named the official state tree of Louisiana in 1963.