BALD CYPRESS; DECIDUOUS CYPRESS (Taxodium distichum Rich). 75 to 150 feet. Tall, pyramidal tree with wide-spread ing, pendulous lower branches, becoming round-headed when aged. Trunk lobed and flaring into buttresses at base, which is usually hollow. Roots stout, horizontal, bending upward to form woody, angular "knees." Bark pale reddish gray, nearly white on young trees and branches; twigs reddish, at first pale green. Wood soft, light, brown, easy to work, dur able, used for construction, posts, ties, cooperage, shingles, doors, and fencing. Leaves deciduous with the branchlets that bear them, 2-ranked, spreading, bright yellow-green, often pale beneath; on pendulous branchlets, closely appressed, keeled, scale-like. Flowers small; staminate in loose panicles,
drooping, showy; pistillate button-like, scattered near ends of last year's growth, scaly, purplish. Fruit woody, globular cones, 1 inch in diameter, in pairs or 'solitary. Dist.: Coast or river swamps, Delaware to Florida, west to Texas; Illinois and Indiana to the Gulf, along the Mississippi River. Fine park tree.