Bald Cypress
Taxodium distichum
A long-lived native conifer that drops its soft, feathery needles each fall after they turn rusty red-brown, a stately specimen or shade tree that thrives anywhere from standing water to ordinary lawn, and takes wind and some salt. Near water it pushes up knobby 'knees'. It needs acid soil; alkaline soil yellows it.
- Mature size
- 60 × 25 ft
- 18.5 × 7.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Medium to wet
- Fall color
- Oct–Nov
Bald Cypress at its mature size
A mature Bald Cypress grows 50 to 70 feet tall and 20 to 30 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Bald Cypress looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Apr
Bare narrow pyramid of fine branches, fibrous red-brown bark, flared base.
In leaf · May–Sep
Soft feathery yellow-green to sage-green needles.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Soft rusty orange-brown to copper, warm and uniform.
Photos
Growing Bald Cypress
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Plains and Mountain West.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Specimen, rain garden, and fall color
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Bald Cypress, that’s about 25 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Bald Cypress in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other cypresses
Wells Special Hinoki Cypress
Italian Cypress
Leyland Cypress
Bald CypressAll drawn to the same scale.