Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Pond Cypress

Taxodium ascendens

Also called pond baldcypress, black cypress, hat-rack cypress, Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium.

A slim cousin of bald cypress whose skyward shoots turn orange-brown in fall, at home in standing water or on a dry lawn.

Tolerates wet soilFall colorDrought tolerantWinter interestStreet treeWildlife value

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 30–70 ft
USDA zones: 5–10
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, the coast, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 8 states, north to Virginia, south to Florida and west to Louisiana
List all 8
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia
Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Pond cypress is a deciduous conifer of the southeastern coastal plain, named for the ponds and lake shores it rings. It also lines blackwater rivers, Carolina bays and wet pine flatwoods. Its short, scale-like leaves lie pressed along the shoots, where bald cypress spreads its leaves in flat, feathery sprays. It is adapted to poorer, more acid water than bald cypress, and it seldom raises knees. Virginia, at the northern end of its range, ranks it critically imperiled. Along a street it fits a planting strip only 3 to 4 feet wide. Plant it at a pond edge or in a rain garden, or as a slim tree where a broad one would crowd.

Size, growth and what to expect

Pond cypress grows at a medium rate, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator, and can reach 35 feet in 20 years. It forms a pyramid 30 to 70 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide. The trunk swells at the base even on young trees, and its bark grows thick and deeply furrowed. The oldest tree dated by its rings, in Florida, was 417 years old.

The male cones hang in clusters 3 to 5 inches long, and the small female cones sit near the branch tips. Pollen is shed in March and April, and the round cones ripen from October to December. They are three quarters of an inch to an inch across, and some birds and squirrels eat the seed.

It grows wild on the coastal plain from southeastern Virginia to Florida and west to Louisiana. It has also been recorded in Delaware, where it is not native.

How to grow Pond Cypress

Pond cypress wants full sun or light shade and an acid soil. It grows in standing water, in moist ground or in dry upland soil. In a long drought it drops its leaves early, with little harm. It does poorly on alkaline soil above about pH 7.5, where the leaves turn yellow. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 15 feet apart. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant from fall to early spring, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, and put the native soil back in. Sow seed outdoors in fall, a quarter to half an inch deep, on a bed kept moist. Mulch the bed with leaves over winter. For spring, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first. In bald cypress, its close kin, often fewer than half the seeds hold an embryo.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Deer and swamp rabbits clip young cypress, though the seedlings usually sprout again. Where nutria live, a wire guard around each seedling is the only protection known. The trunk stays straight on its own, so prune only dead wood and the low branches that hang on.

Each tree carries both male and female cones. The baldcypress coneworm can destroy more than three quarters of a year's cones. No disease is serious, though twig blight can kill the shoot tips of a stressed tree. Cut the dead tips off.

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

Sources (13)