CYPRESS {Taxodium distichum Eich.) 



THE cypress, or bald cypress, is a tree fonnd 

 exclusively in deep swamps ■wMch are usually 

 flooded for long periods at a time, and on wet stream 

 banks and bottomlands in the lower Atlantic 

 Coastal Plain and Mississippi Valley region. Its 

 straight trunk with numerous ascending branches, 

 and narrow conical outline makes the tree one of 



CYPRESS 



One-half natural size. 



From Sargent's "Manual of the Trees of North America," 



by permission of Houghton-Mifflin Company. 



considerable beauty. In old age, the tree generally 

 has a broad fluted or buttressed base, a smooth 

 slowly tapering trunk and a broad, open, flat top of 

 a few heavy branches and numerous small branch- 

 lets. The original-growth timber attained heights 

 of 80 to 130 feet and diameters of 5 to 10 feet. 



The bark is silvery to cinnamon-red and finely 

 divided by numerous longitudinal fissures. The 

 leaves are about one-half to three-fourths of an inch 

 in length, arranged in feather-like fashion along two 

 sides of small branchlets, which fall in the autumn 

 with the leaves still attached ; or they are scale-like 

 and much shorter, light green, and sometimes silvery 

 below. 



The fruit is a rounded cone, or "ball," about one 

 inch in diameter, consisting of thick irregular scales. 



The wood is light, soft, easily worked, varies in 

 color from a light sapwood to dark-brown heart- 

 wood, and is particularly durable in contact with 

 the soil. Hence it is in demand for exterior trim 

 of buildings, greenhouse planking, boat and ship 

 building, shingles, posts, poles and crossties. 



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