Bald Cypress

Bald cypress is a native tree that will grow in standing water, which is more than almost any other large tree can claim. Taxodium distichum reaches 50 to 70 feet tall and 20 to 45 feet wide in full sun, hardy from Zone 4 through Zone 9, and it grows at a moderate to fast rate once it settles in.

The foliage is soft and feathery, bright green through the season, turning rust orange in fall before dropping. This is a deciduous conifer, so it stands bare through winter and shows off the branching structure and the reddish shredding bark.

The trunk flares out into a buttressed base with age, and in permanently wet ground it sends up the woody knees the species is known for. In ordinary garden soil it usually does not produce them.

Native to southern swamps and river bottoms, it also grows well in ordinary and even dry soil once established, which is why it turns up as a street tree in cities well north of its natural range. It handles high salt, compacted soil, and wind, and it is the host plant for the bald cypress sphinx moth. Deer leave it alone. Give it room, since this is a tree that outgrows most suburban lots.