Taxodium ascendens Brongn.

Pond Cypress

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Pond Cypress is a small to medium sized native deciduous tree in the Cypress family (Cupressaceae). It can be found in the southern third of Alabama. Pond Cypress occurs around sink hole ponds, in Cypress domes, in wet depressions, in pine flatwoods, and in other wet areas usually without flowing water. It is a medium sized tree to 20-50 feet in height. The bark is gray brown with shallow furrows and peels in long strips. The bases of the trees are often enlarged (buttressed). The lateral roots commonly produce short “knees” (pneumatophores) which are erect aerial outgrowths specialized for gaseous exchange. Leaves are alternate, appressed, overlapping, lanceolate in outline, and flattened. The leaves are produced on short, mostly erect lateral shoots which are shed with the leaves (cladoptosic). Pond Cypress is monoecious, producing pollen and seed cones on the same individual. The pollen cones are in pendent panicles and are conspicuous in winter when the leaves have been shed. The seed cones occur singly or in clusters of two or three. They are globose and shatter at maturity into 9 to 15 4-sided scales, each with 2 wingless seed. Pond Cypress is often treated as a variety of Bald Cypress (as Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium).—A. Diamond

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Native

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