# Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens)

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

Also called pond baldcypress, black cypress, hat-rack cypress, Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pond-cypress/

![Pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens) threadlike shoots of scale-like leaves around a cluster of green cones](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/pond-cypress-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATaxodium_ascendens_%28pond_cypress_tree%29_4.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Medium tree
- Mature height: 30 to 70 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 10
- 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 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia). Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Wet, Average, Dry
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Tolerates wet soil, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Winter interest, Street tree, 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

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008): Taxodium chapter, Bonner](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Taxodium.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Baldcypress, Wilhite and Toliver 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/baldcypress)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233501252)
- [UF/IFAS Extension: Taxodium ascendens: Pondcypress, ENH-777/ST619, Gilman, Watson, Klein, Koeser, Hilbert and McLean, revised December 2018](https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST619)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/taxodium-distichum-var-imbricarium/)
- [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=271360)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Taxodium ascendens](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=TAAS)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: pondcypress](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=352)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/taxodium/taxodium-distichum/)
- [Virginia Tech, Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages: Taxodium ascendens](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Taxodium&species=ascendens)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Taxodium ascendens](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.141602/Taxodium_ascendens)
- [Virginia Division of Natural Heritage: Natural Heritage Resources of Virginia, Rare Plants, June 2026](https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/plantlist-current.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Taxodium ascendens](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/TAAS)

## 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)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Leaf litter, not wood chips, under the canopy](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/leaf-litter-not-wood-chips/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Pond Cypress, add ?species=pond-cypress with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=pond-cypress&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Pond Cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=pond-cypress): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=pond-cypress
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Pond Cypress is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=pond-cypress
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Pond Cypress needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=pond-cypress:1
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Pond Cypress flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.