# Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

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

Also called swamp cypress. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bald-cypress/

![Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) buttressed trunk with fibrous bark, its knees rising from the brown water of a swamp](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/bald-cypress-2-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Blue Whale Trees*

## Facts

- Type: Large tree
- Mature height: 50 to 80 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 10
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 20 states, north to [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA) and [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV)). Also recorded, not native, in [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH) and [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: March to April
- Fruit: Cones, October to December
- First crop: 12 to 15 years
- Mature spread: 30 ft
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Winter interest, Street tree, Erosion control, Wildlife value
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Wet Spot Pack.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: baldcypress](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/baldcypress)
- [The Morton Arboretum: bald cypress](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/bald-cypress/)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Taxodium distichum](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/taxodium-distichum/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Taxodium chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Taxodium.pdf)
- [UF/IFAS Extension ENH-778/ST620, Taxodium distichum: Baldcypress, Gilman, Hilbert, Watson, Klein, Koeser and McLean, revised 2018](https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST620)
- [Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages (Pederson), Virginia Tech Dendrology: Taxodium distichum](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Taxodium&species=distichum)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Taxodium ascendens, T. distichum](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/taxspp/all.html)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: bald cypress, Taxodium distichum](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_tadi2.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Taxodium distichum](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=TADI2)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: baldcypress, Taxodium distichum](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=117)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Taxodium distichum](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200005404)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Taxodium distichum](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/taxodium/taxodium-distichum/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Taxodium distichum](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/TADI2)
- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Tamarack, Johnston 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/tamarack)
- [New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Natural Heritage Program: Taxodium distichum Rare Plant Profile, Dodds 2022](https://www.nj.gov/dep/parksandforests/natural/heritage/docs/taxodium-distichum-bald-cypress.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/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)
- [How floodplain trees survive high water](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/how-floodplain-trees-survive-high-water/index.html.md)
- [Six trees not to plant near a house, and what to plant instead](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other cypresses (Taxodium) we grow: [Pond Cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pond-cypress/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md), [Willow Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/willow-oak/index.html.md), [Swamp Laurel Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-laurel-oak/index.html.md) and [Pin Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pin-oak/index.html.md)
- Under its canopy: [Needle Palm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/needle-palm/index.html.md), [Dwarf Palmetto](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dwarf-palmetto/index.html.md) and [Pinxterbloom Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pinxterbloom-azalea/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Cucumber Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cucumber-magnolia/index.html.md), [Southern Shagbark Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/southern-shagbark-hickory/index.html.md), [Shumard Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shumard-oak/index.html.md) and [Shagbark Hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shagbark-hickory/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Bald Cypress, add ?species=bald-cypress with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Bald Cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress): whether Bald Cypress can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Bald Cypress as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Bald Cypress is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Bald Cypress needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=bald-cypress:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Bald Cypress where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Bald Cypress goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=bald-cypress&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Bald Cypress flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=bald-cypress