Taxodium ascendens
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Taxodium_ascendens".

Taxodium ascendens
Taxodium ascendens foliage
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Pinophyta Class: Pinopsida Order: Pinales Family: Cupressaceae Genus: Taxodium Species: T. ascendens
Binomial name
Taxodium ascendens Brongn.

Taxodium ascendens, also known as Pond Cypress, is a species of Taxodium native to the southeastern United States, from coastal North Carolina to southeastern Louisiana. Many botanists treat it as a variety of Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum (as T. distichum var. imbricarium) rather than as a distinct species, but it differs in ecology, occurring mainly in still blackwater rivers, ponds and swamps without silt-rich flood deposits. Compared to T. distichum, the leaves are shorter (3-10 mm long), slenderer and are on shoots that tend to be erect rather than spreading; the cones also tend to be smaller, not over 2.5 cm diameter. The bark is also a paler gray color. Like Bald Cypresses, Pond Cypresses growing in water have a characteristic growth trait called cypress knees; these are woody projections sent above the water from the roots.

Young cultivated trees at Longwood Gardens

Spring foliage, Longwood Gardens

Late spring foliage, Alachua County, Florida

References and external links

• Flora of North America (as T. distichum var. imbricarium)

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Taxodium ascendens