Imagine growing up in a family in which some of your relatives include the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), and dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). It would be difficult to even get a mention in the annual holiday letter with famous brothers and sisters like those. But alas, this is the fate of the common baldcypress. But don't feel too sorry for this member of the Taxodiaceae (the redwood family) because on a favorable site, this tough, wetland survivor can live to be 600 years old, and sometimes more!

Baldcypress is native to the swamplands of the southeastern United States, extending into southern Illinois and Indiana, but the species has proven to be quite adaptable far outside of its native range, growing on upland sites as far north as USDA zone 4. Trees are capable of growing 100 feet tall and larger, but in our managed Midwestern landscapes, 40-60 feet might be a more reasonable expectation.

Baldcypress has many characteristics that set it apart from other large trees, but its deciduous nature seems to grab the most attention. Yes, it is a conifer, and most conifers hold on to at least a portion of their foliage during the dormant season, but each autumn baldcypress loses all of its foliage (hence the name "baldcypress"), but only after the tiny leaves turn a rich and handsome shade of coppery-bronze. The Bickelhaupt's impressive specimen growing along the bank of Rock Creek always "colors up" nicely, so don't miss the show this fall.

If you've ever seen baldcypress growing in its native haunts, you've undoubtedly noticed the interesting cone-shaped "knees" (extensions of the root system) that protrude aboveground or above water around the bases of mature trees. Looking remarkably like stalagmites growing upward from the floor of some dark, dank cave, the knees (pneumatophores) are thought to be instrumental in helping the roots of baldcypress obtain oxygen during times of flooding.

The genus name, Taxodium is Greek for "yewlike," an understandable moniker given the foliage is soft just like that of the yew shrub. The specific epithet distichum means "two-ranked," referring to the way the leaves are arranged in two flat rows on either side of small twigs. Baldcypress, or at least the wood of baldcypress has been called the "wood eternal" because the heartwood is highly resistant to rot and termite injury. An oil (cypressene) that builds up in the heartwood is responsible for imparting decay resistance, however, it takes many years (perhaps more than 60 years) before the oil is concentrated enough to ward off the ravages of rot.

Baldcypress is relatively easy to grow once it is established, but during those first few years in the landscape, plants should not lack for appropriate amounts of water. And please, before you invest the time, money, and energy in purchasing and planting one, investigate your soil pH. Baldcypress does not like alkaline soil conditions (pH above 7.0) and trees will turn sickly yellow when forced to grow on these sites.

If you have a small property, one baldcypress is about all you'll have room for. But if you have the luxury of space, and are looking to create an informal, living privacy screen, try planting five, seven, nine, or more spaced at irregular intervals. In doing so you'll be creating a dramatic and memorable drift of baldcypress that will surely delight for years, and perhaps centuries to come.