Flora of North America species comparison

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Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium

bald cypress
Photo is of parent taxon

pondcypress
Habit Trees seasonally cladoptosic; trunk enlarged basally and often conspicuously buttressed; crown monopodial and conic when young, often becoming irregularly flattopped or deliquescent (branched and so divided that the main axis cannot be determined) with age. Trees to ca. 30 m; trunk to 2 m diam.
Bark

brown to light gray, typically somewhat thicker and more deeply furrowed than that of other varieties.
Branchlets

with leaves not in 2 ranks, mostly ascending vertically.
Leaves

ca. 3–10 mm, appressed and overlapping, mostly narrowly lanceolate, free portion not contracted or twisted basally.
Pollen cones

in pendent panicles to ca. 25 cm, 2–3 mm, conspicuous in winter prior to pollination.

Seed

cones 1.5–4 cm.

Shoot

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.

2n

= 22.

Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium
Habitat Blackwater rivers, lake margins, swamps, Carolina Bay lakes, pocosins, and wet, poorly drained, pine flatwoods
Elevation 0–100 m (0–300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; Mexico; Central America in Guatemala
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC
Discussion

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.)

The name Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) Richard var. nutans (Aiton) Sweet has been misapplied to this taxon; the type of this name belongs to var. distichum (F. D. Watson 1985).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
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
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Cupressaceae > Taxodium Cupressaceae > Taxodium > Taxodium distichum
Sibling taxa
T. distichum var. distichum
Subordinate taxa
T. distichum var. distichum, T. distichum var. imbricarium
Synonyms Cupressus disticha Cupressus disticha var. imbricaria, T. ascendens
Name authority (Linnaeus) Richard: Ann. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 16: 298. (1810) (Nuttall) Croom: Cat. Pl. New Bern 30. (1837)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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