Taxodium distichum
Taxodium distichum var. distichum
bald cypress
bald-cypress
usually dark reddish brown to light brown with shallow furrows.
mostly with leaves in 2 ranks, pendent to horizontally spreading.
mostly narrowly linear, ca. 5–17 mm, laterally divergent, free portion contracted and twisted basally.
in pendent panicles to ca. 25 cm, 2–3 mm, conspicuous in winter prior to pollination.
cones 1.5–4 cm.
system conspicuously dimorphic, long shoots indeterminate, bearing individually abscising, linear to lanceolate leaves, short shoots determinate, abscising in autumn with their leaves, variable, intergrading, at one extreme pendent to horizontally spreading, bearing decurrent, narrowly linear and laterally divergent leaves in 2 rows, at other extreme strictly ascending to occasionally pendent, bearing short-lanceolate to deltate and tightly appressed leaves.
= 22.
Taxodium distichum
Taxodium distichum var. distichum
The two varieties recognized in the flora are indistinguishable in reproductive characteristics and continuously intergrading in morphologic and phenologic characteristics, although pure populations of the extremes appear morphologically and ecologically distinct. Unlike the varieties in the flora, var. mexicanum is annually cladoptosic, with determinate short shoots abscising concomitantly with expansion of shoots of the following year. Specimens from juvenile individuals, stump sprouts, fertile branchlets, terminal vegetative branchlets, or late-season growth may not be determinable to variety.
Taxodium distichum (baldcypress) is the state tree of Louisiana.
Varieties 3 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
This variety and var. mexicanum exhibit continuous morphologic integradation and are distinguished on the basis of phenology and distribution.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Determinate short shoots with leaves mostly in 2 ranks, pendent to horizontally spreading; leaves mostly narrowly linear, ca. 5-17 mm, laterally divergent, free portion contracted and twisted basally. | var. distichum |
1. Determinate short shoots with leaves not in 2 ranks, mostly ascending vertically; leaves mostly narrowly lanceolate, ca. 3-10 mm, appressed and overlapping, free portion not contracted and twisted basally. | var. imbricarium |
OR
Flora NW
IL Wildflowers
LA Plants
MD Biodiversity
MO Plants
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
