Bald Cypress [Taxodium distichum]
Posted: October 20, 2018 Filed under: Nature, photography, Trees, Uncategorized | Tags: autumn, colourful, nature, photography, photos, trees 5 CommentsI’ve often wondered about this tree that I’ve passed every time I’ve walked around the local lake. I obviously haven’t caught it at its most spectacular up until now! When I got back home I took the time to search on line for its name but of course, it wasn’t showing up in any British tree lists, so I widened my search and it turned out to be a conifer.
What threw me was that I didn’t class it as a conifer because I’d mistakenly thought all conifers were evergreen and this tree clearly wasn’t. Anyway – the clue was in my pics because I saw what sort of looked like clusters of tiny cones and then some larger spherical green ones hidden among the bright colourful foliage that I hadn’t noticed when I was taking the pics.
It’s a very large tree and I wonder how old it is …. maybe I will see if anyone knows on my local FB group.
Oops – maybe next time I’ll take a pic of the complete tree!!
bye for now, Eileen
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The bald cypress is my favorite tree and, as you’ve discovered, it’s a great tree to photograph in the fall with it’s red, rust leaves. They are pretty common in my neighborhood, especially in parks. I first “discovered” them when I was in highschool. I noticed these trees with big roots (knees) sticking straight up out of the ground and thought they looked like trees I’d seen in pictures of swamps in the southeast US. Turns out they were the same tree which surprised me since there are no swamps around here.
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I envy you David – they must look spectacular all together. I think there may be another smaller tree right next to it. It’s obviously right at home bordering the lake.
Can you explain to me about the difference between the hanging ‘clusters’ and the larger cones?
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I usually see clone clusters of two or three and, less often, single cones but I’ve never noticed a significant difference in size. Maybe some variation in what you see due to different climates. I assume you don’t have the sampy climate of the US southeast or the hot summer climates like where I live in the middle of the US. Could possibly be a single cone is getting more nutrients than a cluster sharing a branch.
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Yes – climate vastly different, but this year, as everywhere else globably it seems, we’ve had heat waves on and off and It’s still unusually warm for October. I’ve promised myself I will get over to the lake again ( maybe tomorrow?) and I will examine my tree and its fruit more closely this time. There’s a slight dip in the ground though and I’m not so steady and confident with the little leggies as I was – don’t want to end up in a roll down into the lake 😳😁📷
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Silly me – that’s what my zoom lens is for!
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