BALD CYPRESS See Map: A, H 
Taxodium distichum 
The Garden was almost treeless when 
founded in 1859, and one of the earliest 
major tree-planting efforts, begun in 
1861, was Henry Shaw’s Arboretum. 
Not to be confused with the present 
Shaw Arboretum near Gray Summit, 
Missouri, the original arboretum occu- 
pied what is now the northwest corner of 
the Garden plus some land now outside 
of the walls. Over the years, that old 
arboretum dwindled as old age, disease, 
storms, air pollution, and changing 
policies eliminated its trees. Yet three 
reminders of the original arboretum are 
still with us: the grand trio of bald 
cypresses towering above the Mainte- 
nance Area gate onto Alfred Avenue at 
the Garden’s western border. Additional 
bald cypresses are scattered around the 
Garden, most notably as two rows along 
the lily pools between the Climatron and 
Flora Gate (Spink Pavilion). Bald cy- 
presses are trees of southern swamp- 
lands, ranging naturally from southern Missouri to Florida and Texas. In 
the wild they often have woody knobs called “knees” rising up through 
the mud from the roots. The function of cypress knees has been de- 
bated—it is widely suspected that they help the roots obtain air. 
That they drop their leaves (and entire young twigs) each winter 
makes bald cypresses unusual among conifers, which generally are 
evergreens. Their leafless winter dormancy may be what saved our large 
bald cypresses during St. Louis’s coal-burning days, when, with one 
exception, pollution from coal smoke killed all the evergreen conifers on 
the grounds. 
The Bald Cypress Family (Taxodiaceae) is small but contains well- 
known, big members: giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and 
redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). Also in this family is the dawn red- 
wood (a native of China and featured on page 12 in this guide). Bald 
cypress is easily confused with the very similar dawn redwood but has its 
Winter Summer 
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