General Landscape Uses:
Accent or specimen tree in wet soils.
Availability:
Commonly available at native plant nurseries in central Florida. Available at native plant nurseries in northeast and South Florida. Available at
Indian Trails Native Nursery in Lake Worth (561-641-9488).
Description: Small to large tree with an erect, straight trunk. Bark gray to brown, flaking in strips. Needles deciduous, thin, light green, almost always held flat against the twig.
Dimensions: Typically 10-80 feet in height in South Florida; to 115 feet in Florida. Usually taller than broad.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Eastern and southeastern United States west to Texas and south to Miami-Dade County and the Monroe County mainland.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Freshwater swamps and marl prairies.
Soils: Wet to moist, poorly-drained to moderately well-drained calcareous, sandy or organic soils, with or without humus.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate to high; grows best with some organic content and may languish in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.
Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: Green turning brown.
Flower Characteristics: Cone.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Cone.
Wildlife and Ecology: Provides some food and moderate amounts of cover for wildlife.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed soaked in water for 24-48 hours.
Comments: Depending on nutrients and water availability, this can be a small tree or tree-like shrub or it can be a large tree. See a 2018 post on the
Treasure Coast Natives blog on the galls created by the Cypress Twig Gall Midge on Pond Cypress.
