Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

Quick Facts

• Type: tree
• Size: 50-70 ft tall
• Sun: full
• Water: high
• Soil: Wet to flooded soils; tolerates standing water
• USDA zones: 8-11

Knees, Spanish moss, and feathery foliage that turns russet in fall – a living fossil.

Handles months of standing water and hurricane winds; choose pond cypress for drier spots.

In the Landscape

Florida's signature wetland tree — feathery foliage, fluted trunk, knees rising from the water. Unbeatable for ponds, lake edges, rain gardens, and soggy low spots. One of the few deciduous conifers: it turns russet and drops its needles in fall.

Care & Propagation

Plant in fall in wet to moist soil — it thrives where other trees drown. Space 20-30 feet apart. Knees may appear in lawns; mow around them or mulch the area. Virtually pest-free.

Seeds need cold stratification and consistently moist soil; sow in fall in wet ground. Also grows from cuttings.

Wildlife Value

Seeds feed ducks (especially wood ducks), turkeys, and squirrels. Old hollow trunks shelter owls, bats, and raccoons; knees and roots provide fish habitat in flooded forests.

🌱 Fun fact: Bald cypress knees are one of botany's great mysteries — they may help stabilize the tree in soft mud or ferry oxygen to drowned roots, but after centuries of study, scientists still argue about it at conferences.

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🌴 In Florida

Handles months of standing water and hurricane winds; choose pond cypress for drier spots.

🌿 Keep exploring

More Florida natives worth meeting:

• Alachua bully (Sideroxylon alachuense)
• American Elm (Ulmus americana)
• American Holly (Ilex opaca)