# Bald cypress or dawn redwood: which one is it?

> How to tell a dawn redwood from a bald cypress by needles, cones, trunk and knees, where each grows wild, and which one to plant where the ground stays wet.

Published 2026-11-06. Tags: What to plant, How trees work. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/bald-cypress-or-dawn-redwood/

Look at where the needles join the shoot. A dawn redwood sets them in opposite pairs, and its side shoots leave the twig in pairs too, while a bald cypress staggers both, one at a time. Both are [deciduous conifers](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md#deciduous-conifer) whose soft, feathery foliage turns russet and drops each fall. Bald cypress is native to southern swamps, and dawn redwood grows wild only in a small area of central China, yet both are planted on lawns far from home.

![Dawn redwood shoots hanging against dark foliage, their flat, soft green needles set in opposite pairs along each shoot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/bald-cypress-or-dawn-redwood-1-1000.jpg?v=f5d5312f "Dawn redwood at the Dawes Arboretum in Licking County, Ohio, on July 5, 2008. Each needle has a partner directly across the shoot, and the shoots come off the twig in pairs.")
*Photo: James St. John, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMetasequoia_glyptostroboides_%28dawn_redwood_leaves%29_4.jpg))*

## Needles and side shoots

Both trees hold their needles in two flat rows, like the teeth of a comb, so look at where each needle joins its shoot. On dawn redwood the needles stand in pairs, directly across from each other, and their tips are blunt. On bald cypress they come one at a time, staggered along the shoot, and their tips are pointed.

The same holds where the shoots meet the twig. A dawn redwood's shoots leave in opposite pairs, and in winter its buds sit in pairs at the base of each one. A bald cypress's shoots alternate along the twig. Check several, since a broken shoot can make an opposite tree look alternate, as in [winter twig identification](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-tree-identification/index.html.md).

In fall the test lies on the ground, since both trees drop their needles still attached to the shoots that carried them. In winter both stand bare, and [a scratched twig tells a bare tree from a dead one](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/is-my-bald-cypress-dead/index.html.md). Pond cypress, the other native, is easier: its short needles lie pressed along shoots that point straight up. A photo of a shoot in the [tree identification tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/identify/index.html.md) returns up to three names and says whether the tree is native.

![A bald cypress in rust-orange fall color across a pond, its feathery crown against bare gray woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/bald-cypress-or-dawn-redwood-2-1000.jpg?v=76e8e33c "A bald cypress in its orange-brown fall color across a pond on November 5, 2026. Soon after, its shoots fall to the ground with their needles still attached.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Cones, trunk and knees

The other signs back up the needles. The table gives them for the two natives we grow and for dawn redwood, which we do not.

| Tree | Cones | Trunk | Knees |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Bald cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bald-cypress/index.html.md) | Round, on a short stalk | Flared at the base | In wet ground |
| [Pond cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pond-cypress/index.html.md) | Round, 3/4 to 1 inch | Swollen at the base | Seldom |
| Dawn redwood | Barrel-shaped, on a long stalk | Buttressed and fluted | Not formed |

Cones come only on a tree old enough to bear them, 12 to 15 years for a bald cypress. Its cone breaks apart into scales and seeds when ripe. A dawn redwood's cone is a small barrel of woody scales set in opposite pairs, hanging from a stalk up to 1 1/2 inches long.

![Cluster of round, wrinkled green cones on a bald cypress twig among feathery sprays of needles](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/bald-cypress-or-dawn-redwood-3-1000.jpg?v=2b53baf1 "Bald cypress cones in a garden in Cerro, Italy, on September 9, 2009. Each is a round ball on a short stalk, and it breaks apart into scales and seeds when ripe.")
*Photo: Sciadopitys, [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATaxodium_distichum_Cerro_Italy.jpg))*

Bark helps little, since both trees have fibrous, reddish-brown bark that peels in long, narrow strips. Knees settle it only where the ground stays wet. On a well-drained lawn a bald cypress rarely raises [its knees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/how-floodplain-trees-survive-high-water/index.html.md), so a lawn tree without them could be either.

## Where each grows wild

Bald cypress grows wild along the coasts from southern Delaware to Florida and Texas, and up the Mississippi valley to southern Illinois. It stands in swamps, on stream banks and on wet flats. Pond cypress rings ponds and lake shores on the coastal plain from southeastern Virginia to Florida and Louisiana.

![A bald cypress trunk in a wooded swamp, its fibrous gray bark in long vertical strips, young leafy stems in front](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/bald-cypress-or-dawn-redwood-4-1000.jpg?v=252b0e34 "Bald cypress in a wooded swamp on May 19, 2024. Its fibrous bark peels in thin vertical strips, much like a dawn redwood's, so bark helps little in telling the two apart.")
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

Dawn redwood was known from fossils before anyone found it alive, and its fossil record goes back at least 50 million years. Living trees turned up in the 1940s near the border of Sichuan and Hubei, where they grow on shady, moist ground in ravines and along streams. None was planted outside China until 1948, and nearly every tree planted elsewhere before 1991 came from the seed of one to three wild trees.

Both are planted far outside their wild ranges, bald cypress hardy to zone 4 and dawn redwood to zone 4 or 5, so where a tree stands says little. The [site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress) grades bald cypress against your own zone, sun and soil moisture.

## Which one to plant

The sources part ways on how wet a dawn redwood likes its ground. An Ohio State University Extension article sets it apart from bald cypress:

> "Dawn redwood prefers, moist well-drained soil, unlike the Bald Cypress, which can grow in wet soil to even intermittent standing water." (Ohio State University Extension, *Street Trees Part 6 – Metasequioa, Dawn Redwood and Taxodium, Bald Cypress*)

The Gymnosperm Database finds the reverse in the trees planted from 1948 on:

> "In general, those planted in aquatic settings such as wetlands or riparian areas have shown the best performance and make the most impressive plants." (The Gymnosperm Database, *Metasequoia glyptostroboides, dawn redwood*)

Where water stands for weeks, bald cypress is the safer choice, since it grows in standing water as readily as on a dry lawn. Blue Whale Trees grows bald cypress and pond cypress from seed:

- **Bald cypress** for a pond edge, a low spot that floods or an open lawn. Zones 4 to 10, 50 to 80 feet.
- **Pond cypress** for acid ground, a rain garden or a street strip only 3 to 4 feet wide. Zones 5 to 10, 30 to 70 feet.

Both come up in the shop's [search for Taxodium](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=taxodium), and bald cypress also comes in the [Wet Spot Pack](https://bluewhaletrees.com/bundles/wet-spot/index.html.md) for the corner that floods each spring. In the rest of a wet yard, other natives [take standing water or seasonal floods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-that-soak-up-water/index.html.md).

## Common questions

### Is dawn redwood deciduous?

Yes: its needles turn russet brown in fall and drop with the small shoots that carry them, and new ones open in spring, as on bald cypress.

### Why is my dawn redwood turning brown?

In fall it is going bare for winter, as it does every year. Browning in summer is something else: Japanese beetles eat the foliage, and canker diseases can occur.

### Does dawn redwood have knees?

No: bald cypress raises knees in wet ground, and dawn redwood does not. That is one reason dawn redwood is planted in place of bald cypress where knees would be in the way.

### Which grows faster, dawn redwood or bald cypress?

Dawn redwood, which is rated fast-growing and reaches 70 to 100 feet. Bald cypress grows at a medium rate, about a foot and a half a year on good ground, to 50 to 80 feet.

## Sources

- [Metasequoia glyptostroboides, dawn redwood](https://www.conifers.org/cu/Metasequoia.php): The Gymnosperm Database (Christopher J. Earle, modified 2026): opposite shoots in dawn redwood and alternate in bald cypress, blunt needles in a comblike row, cone scales in opposite pairs, the wild trees near the Sichuan and Hubei border on shady, moist ground, hardiness to zone 5, no planting outside China before 1948, seed from one to three trees, and the quotation on trees in wet settings.
- [Metasequoia glyptostroboides](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/metasequoia-glyptostroboides/): NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, with its Taxodium distichum page: dawn redwood's opposite needles and side shoots, buds in pairs, barrel-shaped cones hanging on long stalks, a fluted trunk, fibrous bark, a fossil record of at least 50 million years, living trees found in the 1940s, fast growth and Japanese beetles; bald cypress's alternate needles in two flat rows, round cones on short stalks, fibrous bark peeling in strips, a flared base and shoots that fall with their needles attached.
- [baldcypress, Taxodium distichum](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=117): Virginia Tech Dendrology, with its pondcypress fact sheet: bald cypress twigs alternate, cones that break apart into seeds, and pond cypress needles held close to shoots that rise vertically, with cones 3/4 to 1 inch across.
- [Dawn redwood](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/dawn-redwood/): The Morton Arboretum: feathery foliage turning russet brown in autumn, cones hanging on stalks up to 1 1/2 inches long, a buttressed lower trunk with bark peeling in long strips, hardiness from zone 4, fast growth to 70 to 100 feet, and canker diseases.
- [Street Trees Part 6 – Metasequioa, Dawn Redwood and Taxodium, Bald Cypress](https://bygl.osu.edu/index.php/node/1730): Ohio State University Extension, Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine (Thomas deHaas, 2020): the quotation on dawn redwood's preference for moist, well-drained soil, against bald cypress in standing water.
- [Dawn Redwood](https://www.hotspringsar.gov/1067/Dawn-Redwood): City of Hot Springs, Arkansas, Trees in the Urban Landscape: knees on bald cypress in wet areas and none on dawn redwood, which is planted in its place where knees may occur.

## Related

- Next step: [See the catalog](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=taxodium)
- [Trees and shrubs that soak up water: what they can do for a wet yard, and the natives for a rain garden](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-that-soak-up-water/index.html.md)
- [Is my bald cypress dead? The conifers that drop every needle in fall, and when brown means trouble](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/is-my-bald-cypress-dead/index.html.md)
- [Winter identification: telling native trees apart by bark, buds and twigs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-tree-identification/index.html.md)
- [Why reservoirs and drinking watersheds are surrounded by forest, and what the trees do for the water](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/why-reservoirs-are-surrounded-by-forest/index.html.md)