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Flora of the Carolinas and Virginia, Working Draft of 1 January 1997 -- Gymnosperms Alan S. Weakley.
Copyright - Alan S. Weakley, 1998, 1999. All Rights Reserved.


Taxodium L.C. Richard (Bald-cypress)

References: Godfrey (1988), abbreviated as Z, Duncan and Duncan (1988), Watson in FNA (1993). Key adapted from Z.

1. Leafy branchlets ascending from the twigs, secundly erect (the base often curving, the apical portion of the branchlet borne in a vertical plane), except on juvenile trees (which mimic T. distichum); leaves subulate, spirally arranged, not spreading laterally and featherlike (except on juvemile trees), ascending or appressed; leaves mostly 3-10 mm long (to 15 mm long on juvenile trees); bark thick (1-2.5 cm thick), furrowed, dark-brown, not exfoliating; larger knees short, rarely more than 4 dm tall, usually columnar or broad and mound-like, with thick, compact bark on top; [trees of isolated depressions (clay-based Carolina bays, depression ponds), wet savannas, and, less commonly, blackwater swamps and natural lakes].....T. ascendens

1. Leafy branchlets spreading laterally from the twigs, except in the crowns of mature trees (which mimic T. ascendens); leaves linear, flat, spirally arranged but by twisting of their basal portions spreading laterally and featherlike (pseudodistichous), appressed only on drooping branches of the crown, if at all; leaves mostly 8-20 mm long (sometimes less on crown branches); bark thin (less than 1 cm thick), exfoliating in shreddy, orange-brown strips; larger knees often tall, often over 4 dm tall, usually narrowly conical, with thin, shreddy bark on top; [trees of brownwater swamp forests, blackwater swamp forests, natural lakes, and millponds].....T. distichum