BALD CYPRESS Taxodium distichum Richard
CYPRESS
Natural size.
THE bald cypress is a tree found exclusively in deep swamps and was found in southern Illinois from the Mississippi bottoms to Shawneetown. Its straight trunk with numerous ascending branches, and narrow conical outline makes the tree one of considerable beauty. In old age, the tree generally has a broad fluted or buttressed base, a smooth slowly tapering trunk and a broad, open, flat top of a few heavy branches and numerous small branchlets. The original-growth timber attained heights of 80 to 130 feet and diameters of 5 to 10 feet.
The bark is silvery to cinnamon-red and finely divided by numerous longitudinal fissures. The leaves are about ½ to ¾ of an inch in length, arranged in feather-like fashion along two sides of small branchlets, which fall in the autumn with the leaves still attached.
The fruit is a rounded cone, or “ball”, about one inch in diameter, consisting of thick irregular scales.
The wood is light, soft, easily worked, varies in color from light to dark brown, and is particularly durable in contact with the soil. Hence it is in demand for exterior trim of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat and shipbuilding, shingles, posts, poles and crossties.