Missouri Plants Baldcypress   (Taxodium distichum) Tracheophyte: Gymnosperm: Cypress (Cupressaceae) Native North American tree Habitat: wet soil areas, often in swamps. ID Features: very small needles, loses needs in winter. Natural History: The baldcypress is a coniferous bottomland tree with needle-like leaves. Unlike other conifers, it drops its needles in the fall like many other broadleaf trees such as oaks and hickories. The wood is amazingly rot-proof and has been used for many outdoor applications such as porches and sheds. Baldcypress trees are gymnosperms and do not make flowers. They produce brown cones which make their seeds.

The information is from: Trees of Missouri by Carl Settergren and Re. E. McDermott, University of Missouri-Columbia Agricultural Experiment Station, ©1979.