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Taxodium distichum
Also called Bald Cypress, Swamp Cypress, Louisiana Cypress, Marsh Cypress
In Singapore: Swamp Cypress, Bald Cypress, Gulf Cypress, Marsh Cypress, Pond Cypress (Grown in Singapore)
Baldcypress is a large, long-lived deciduous conifer native to the southeastern United States, grown as a landscape tree. It is remarkably adaptable to wet, swampy, or dry soils and is notable for its russet-orange autumn color.
Taxodium distichum, the bald cypress, bald-cypress, baldcypress, or swamp cypress; French: cyprès chauve;
cipre in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. It is native to the Southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy. It is noted for the russet-red fall color of its lacy needles. It is both extremely flood tolerant and rather drought hardy.
The bald cypress is hardy and can be planted in hardiness zones 4 through 10 in the US or prehaps even down to USDA zone 11. The species is a popular ornamental tree that is cultivated for its light, feathery foliage and orangey brown to dull red autumnal color. In cultivation it thrives on a wide range of soils, including well-drained sites where it would not grow naturally because juvenile seedlings cannot compete with other vegetation. Cultivation is successful far north of its native range, even to southern Canada. It is also commonly planted in Europe, Asia, and other temperate and subtropical locales. Additionally it is sometimes planted in gardens and parks Eastern Australia with most specimens being found in Temperate to warm temperate areas although two trees are thriving in an open location along a drain on the side of the highway north of Port Douglas Queensland (the tree itself is at a latitude and longitude of-16.4853970, 145.4134609), so it would seem the species can grow well in tropical conditions. It does, however, require hot summers for good growth.
The native range extends from southeastern New Jersey south to Florida and west to Central Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, and also inland up the Mississippi River to southernmost Illinois and Indiana. Ancient bald cypress forests, with some trees more than 1,700 years old, once dominated swamps in the Southeast. The original range had been thought to only reach as far north as Delaware, but researchers have now found a natural forest on the Cape May Peninsula in southern New Jersey. The species can also be found growing outside its natural native range, in New York and Pennsylvania.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Taxodium distichum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
