Taxodium distichumSwamp cypress
A deciduous conifer of conical habit with feathery light green foliage, which turns copper and rust in autumn before falling. It is one of the few large trees that thrive with their feet in water, and so the natural choice for lake margins, flooded areas and heavy soils that other species cannot cope with.
- Grows with its feet in water and in heavy soils where almost nothing else thrives
- Feathery foliage that turns copper and rust in autumn
- Regular, conical habit, 20 to 35 metres, for parks and water margins
About this species
Taxodium distichum reaches 20 to 35 metres in height and 8 to 12 in spread, with a crown that is conical and regular when young, more open with age, and a trunk with a flared base and fibrous reddish-brown bark.
The leaves, small and linear, are arranged in two rows along small shoots that fall whole in autumn, after passing through a copper and a rust that can be seen from afar. In spring the new growth is a very pale, soft green.
It is native to the swamps of the south-eastern United States and, beside water or in permanently waterlogged soil, develops the pneumatophores that rise from the ground around the trunk. It grows equally well in ordinary garden soil, moist and deep, and tolerates drought moderately once established. It wants full sun and withstands cold and wind.
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