ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Bald Cypress Trees 

Description

Bald cypress is a large, slow-growing but long-lived, deciduous conifer, which frequently reaches 100 to 120 feet in height and 3 to 6 feet in diameter. Its trunk is massive, tapered and buttressed. The leaves are alternate, linear and flat with blades generally spreading around the twig. The bark is thin and fibrous with an interwoven pattern of narrow flat ridges and narrow furrows. Its male and female flowers form slender tassle-like structures near the edge of the branchlets. Bald cypress trees produces cone fruit, and there are approximately 5,200 seeds per pound. It develops a taproot as well as horizontal roots that lie just below the surface and extend 20 to 50 feet before bending down. It develops knees that grow above water providing additional support. 

Uses

Erosion Control: 

Riverine swamps of bald cypress reduce damage from floods and act as sediment and pollutant traps as they cause floodwaters to spread out, slow down, and infiltrate the soil. 

Timber:

 Its wood is valuable for building construction, fence posts, planking in boats, river pilings, doors, blinds, flooring, shingles, garden boxes, caskets, interior trim and cabinetry. 

Wildlife: 

Its seeds are eaten by wild turkey, wood ducks, evening grosbeak, squirrels, waterfowl, and wading birds. Cypress domes provide unique watering places for a variety of birds and mammals and breeding sites for frogs, toads, salamanders, and other reptiles. Yellow-throated warblers forage in the Spanish moss often found hanging on the branches. Its tops provide nesting sites for bald eagles, ospreys, herons, and egrets. 

Site Rehabilitation:

 It has potential for rehabilitating margins of surface-mined lakes. Cypress domes can serve as tertiary sewage treatment facilities for improving water quality and recharging groundwater.

 Beautification: 

This species has been planted as a water tolerant tree species used for shading and canopy closure in mosquito control programs. It has been successfully planted throughout its range as an ornamental and along roadsides. 

Adaptation:

Bald cypress is generally restricted to very wet soils consisting of muck, clay or fine sand where moisture is abundant and fairly permanent. It is usually found on flat or nearly flat topography at elevations less than 100 feet above sea level. Its thin bark offers little protection against fire and during years of drought when swamps are dry, fire kills great numbers of cypress. 

Distribution:

Bald cypress is widely distributed along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from southern Delaware to southern Florida, westward along the lower Gulf Coast Plain to southeastern Texas 

Bald Cypress Trees along the banks of the Guadalupe Lakes Face unknown future