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Bald Cypress

Scientific name: Taxodium distichum

Also called swamp cypress.

The swamp conifer that also thrives on dry lawns, with feathery foliage that turns rust-orange in fall.

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Saplings ship bare-root, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May and October to November.

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Type: Large tree
Mature height: 50–80 ft
USDA zones: 4–10
Growth rate: Medium
Flowers: March to April
Fruit: Cones, October to December
First crop: 12 to 15 years
Mature spread: 30 ft
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 20 states, north to New Jersey, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 20
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia
Also recorded, not native, in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Bald cypress is the longest-lived tree in eastern North America, with cross-dated trees over 2,600 years old in North Carolina. It grows in standing water but is equally at home on an ordinary well-drained lawn, where it rarely produces knees. Hardy far north of its native range and widely planted across the Midwest and Northeast. Deciduous, so it lets winter sun through. Cities such as Charlotte, Dallas and Tampa have planted it along their streets. Ideal for a pond edge or the low spot that floods every spring.

Size, growth and what to expect

Bald cypress grows about a foot and a half a year on good ground, judging by one plantation whose tallest trees averaged 69 feet at 41 years. That is the medium rate our growth estimator assumes for it in youth on an average site. In a landscape it reaches 50 to 80 feet with a crown 20 to 30 feet wide, and old trunks run 3 to 6 feet through.

Some seed comes every year and a good crop every 3 to 5 years, in round cones up to 1.4 inches across, ripe from October to December. Wood ducks, wild turkeys and squirrels eat the seed, and old trees hold the nests of bald eagles and ospreys. It is very long-lived, and trees of 400 to 600 years were once common. Knees rise beside flooded trees, to 12 feet in places.

It grows wild from southern Delaware to southern Florida along the coasts and up the Mississippi valley to southern Illinois.

How to grow Bald Cypress

Bald cypress grows in full sun, and it is as happy on a dry lawn as in a flooded swamp. What it dislikes is high pH; on limestone soils the needles turn yellow. This is a tall, narrow tree with a flared base, so plant it 25 feet from buildings and out from under wires. Set trees 20 to 30 feet apart.

Plant bald cypress as a dormant bare-root sapling between fall and early spring. Dig a wide hole no deeper than the roots, set the root flare at grade, and refill with plain soil. Mulch a ring three inches deep, kept away from the trunk, and stake only if the tree leans. Sow seed in fall a quarter to half an inch deep on a bed kept constantly moist. Mulch the bed with leaves over winter.

Water once a week through the first summer, more on sandy ground. Deer rub and browse young cypress where pressure is high, and rabbits nip the leader, so a tree tube for the first three years is wise. Leave the central leader alone; it needs no pruning.

Male and female cones grow on the same tree and the wind carries the pollen, so one tree bears seed alone. Knees appear only on wet or saturated ground. Expect a foot or two of growth a year, and rust-orange foliage before the needles drop each fall.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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