Taxodium distichum
Origin: Missouri
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~70
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Bald cypresses are the most iconic trees of swampy bottomlands and winding rivers in the US southeast, with their long straight trunks, high branches, and knobby "knees" sticking straigh up out of the nearby ground or water (believed to help stabilize the tall trees). They're called "bald" because they're deciduous conifers (like the tamarack/larch and dawn redwood), dropping their needle-like leaves every fall. While they are native to the southeast, they can be grown much farther north — considered generally hardy to Zone 5 or even 4! Our seeds come to us from the good folks at Sheffield's Seeds in Locke, NY, and were grown in Missouri, in the most northern reaches of the trees natural range, so they should be well suited to growing in most of eastern North America (and possible western too). And while they can grow even in two-feet of standing water year-round, they also do great in suburban backyards and urban parks across the country.
Finally, addition to being a beautiful native plant, the bald cypress is also medicinal (cone resin used as an analgesic for wounds and skin rashes) and its wood makes for useful timber as well (relatively soft and light, but also straight-grained, easily worked, durable in damp soil, and takes a good polish).
GROWING TIPS: Soak seed for 24 hours then cold-moist stratify for 90 days. May take 1-3 months for seeds to sprout. Can be fall sown outdoors without stratification.
