logosmall.JPG (9291 bytes)

Vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States
Hardin, Massey, Radford, Thieret, eds.

Copyright - James W. Hardin, Ph. D., 1998, 1999. All Rights Reserved.

1. TAXODIUM Richard


1. T. distichum (L.) Richard. Small to large (40 m), monoecious, cladoptosically deciduous, resinous trees; young trees conical and excurrent, typically becoming irregularly flat-topped or deliquescent with age; trunk swollen basally and often conspicuously buttressed; irregular conical to rounded "knees" produced by the roots in response to periodic flooding; bark fibrous, dark reddish brown to light gray with vertical furrows separating scaly ridges. Leaves alternate and decurrent; free portion linear, lanceolate, or scale-like, divergent or appressed; abscising individually on long shoots or persisting on and abscising with the determinate short shoots (cladoptosis). Cones arising from axillary buds produced on the previous year's growth, short-stalked with imbricate, basal, scale-like leaves. Pollen cones small and subglobose, borne either singly, in simple or branched racemes, or large drooping panicles conspicuous in winter habit prior to pollination; each cone consisting of 10-20 more or less shield-shaped sporophylls, each with 2-10 sporangia. Mature seed cones subglobose, usually 1.5-4 cm in diam., woody and resinous, consisting of 4-10 bract-scale complexes fused and appearing more or less peltate, each with (1)2 erect, woody, wingless, and irregularly trigonous seeds; the entire cone shattering with the seeds. (n=ll) Early spring. As here defined, two varieties are recognized which are morphologically and ecologically quite distinct as extremes in the field, but which illustrate continuous intergradation of all vegetative characters and are indistinguishable by reproductive characters. Herbarium specimens lacking complete samples of foliage variation and complete habitat data cannot be reliably identified to variety. This treatment is based upon Watson, F.D. 1982. A taxonomic study of Taxodium of Eastern North America. Dissertation, Department of Botany, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Little, E.L. 1971. Atlas of United States Trees, Vol. 1, Conifers and Important Hardwoods. USDA Miscl. Publ. 1146.