Northwestern range of the bald cypress tree
When you hear the words "bald cypress", do you think of the cypress swamps of Georgia or Florida? If so, you are absolutely right -- bald cypress trees are common in the coastal wetlands of the Southeast. We've all seen images of moss-draped baldcypress trees and their impressive knees, even if we've never personally visited a cypress swamp.
However, it may surprise you that the range of the baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) includes a small portion of several Midwestern states. The bald cypress occurs naturally in the Mississippi River valley of southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri, and in the Wabash and Ohio River valleys of southern Illinois and southern Indiana.Before the land was settled, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri had many acres of cypress swamps, perhaps not as famous as those of the southeast, but every bit as genuine. Many of these wetlands were drained and the land was put into cultivation, as Charles Clemon Deam noted in the 1916 book, Trees of Indiana.
In recent years, an effort has been made to conserve remaining swamps, such as the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Missouri, Twin Swamps and Goose Pond Cypress Slough in southern Indiana, and the Cache River State Natural Area in southern Illinois.
Bald cypress has been successfully planted much farther north than the area where it occurs naturally. While writing this post, I've read about bald cypress trees that are surviving the winters of Minnesota, Michigan, and even southern Canada.
More about Midwestern cypress swamps:
Mingo: Last of the Bootheel Swamps
Mitch and Amy's Mingo Swamp Adventure
Cache River Wetlands
"Cypress swamps Illinois" on Flickr
Credit:
Range map from the USDA Silvics Manual, Volume 1
"The power to recognize trees at a glance without examining their leaves or flowers or fruit as they are seen, for example, from the car-window during a railroad journey, can only be acquired by studying them as they grow under all possible conditions over wide areas of territory. Such an attainment may not have much practical value, but once acquired it gives to the possessor a good deal of pleasure which is denied to less fortunate travelers."
3 comments -- please add yours:
Hi, Genevieve!
I can attest that bald cypresses grow well in northern Missouri. 25 years ago I received a bundle of cypress seedlings from the Conservation Dept. tree nursery. They looked dead and I wanted to just discard the bundle, but just for the heck of it I stuck a couple of the withered-looking twigs in the ground, then threw the rest of them away. I was ignorant, I freely admit!
The two seedlings thrived and now have trunk diameters of perhaps twelve or fourteen inches. That was how I learned that bald cypress seedlings can fool you!
BTW, this is a great site for tree-lovers!
Hi, Larry. We have a wet spot in our yard that a bald cypress would probably love (where the weeping willows that shall live in infamy currently stand.) However, they'd probably develop knees there which wouldn't lend to mowing around them.
However, they don't necessarily need a wet spot. I know of one that's growing on a hillside in a backyard. The site is definitely "well-drained", but the baldcypress is doing fine and has become a large tree.
Thanks for the kind words about Tree Notes. I particularly value them because I know you are also a student of nature.
I wouldn't worry about those knees, Genevieve. From what I've read they only develop in bald cypresses that grow in frequently-flooded areas, and the knees don't tend to develop until the trees are quite old. It has been theorized that the knees provide oxygen to roots starved of the essential gas by persistent floodwaters.
There are several old bald cypress trees here in Hannibal. A first sign that spring is in full spate is when the cypresses develop a frothy green mist of budding foliage. Not yet!
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