Campbell Vaughn: Ancient bald cypress survives modern conditions
There are some trees that I love. Frasier fir is high on my list because all of my holiday loot is hiding under one in my living room. And it smells so wonderful. Riding around yesterday doing some work chores, I saw a grouping of trees that really need more recognition, the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum).
This pyramidal conifer is one of the longest-lived trees in the world and has really become more popular in urban landscapes over the past 15-20 years. Usually found on the edges of rivers or swamps from Florida over to Texas and up to as far north as Maryland, this native plant has become a great street and urban environment tree because of its tolerance of tough planting sites. And the reason the bald cypress does a good job in tough areas is because of how it adapts to challenging soil conditions.
Generally speaking, soils are a mixture of minerals (sand, silt or clay), organic materials and void space that contain either air or water. Most plants need moisture via the water in the soil, but a big thing for root health is oxygen from the air in the soil’s void spaces. Bald cypress can live their entire life with their root systems under water. Being underwater doesn’t allow for air to flow through the soil oxygenating the root systems and these cypress trees don’t seem to be bothered with it. In urban areas like along roadways, soil conditions are usually very compacted. This means that there is very little void space for air to flow through the soil to oxygenate the roots. Bald cypress doesn’t mind this and thrives in these conditions. No air or all water is a rare habitat for a plant to prosper.
But there are some drawbacks to using the bald cypress in urban areas because the have something that is not usually associated with trees…knees. Knees are knobby root growth that protrude above the ground surface on the cypress usually in more moist conditions. They are like the stalagmites for plants and a terrible tripping hazard. In the swamps, a bald cypress’s knees can get as high as 12 feet but they are usually under 1 foot in height. I used to spend a lot of time hunting in the swamps along the Ogeechee River with friends and the bald cypress were amazing. But walking in the dark through the swamp, cypress knees were a major hazard. There are plenty of times I went from warm and dry to wet and cold with an underwater encounter with a cypress knee.
Naturally, bald cypress are usually very tall and the trunk flares to have a wide base that is usually on the edge of or even underneath the water. Sometimes the base will be 6-8 feet wide. Along the Black River between Fayetteville and Wilmington North Carolina, researchers found that some of the bald cypress there are well over 1000 years old. They have actually found one specimen in particular that is at least 2,625 years old. That would make this tree to be the oldest tree in eastern North America and the fifth oldest tree in the world. And in the spirit of the Christmas season, this specimen is 600 years older than Jesus.
Another tree that I really have grown to love is a close relative of the bald cypress called the pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens). Pond cypress has a lot of the same characteristics to the bald cypress, but the leaves are longer and have almost a weeping form to them. Where the bald cypress has a tighter pyramidal form, the pond cypress is looser and flowing. For some really nice specimen of these cypress, check out North Augusta’s Brick Pond Park especially on Center Street heading down to SRP Park. They really look great next to the pink blooming muhly grass right now.
Reach Campbell Vaughn, the UGA Agriculture and Natural Resource agent for Richmond County, by e-mailing augusta@uga.edu.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Campbell Vaughn: long-lived and hearty, bald cypress deserves praise
