One cool tree. Autumn brings yellow-copper hue to leaves before dropped (1 of only a few conifer trees w/ deciduous habit). Tree is well suited to wet conditions (though conversely, is drought tolerant when established). Fast growth rate (2'/yr), can reach 60' in less than 25 years). Often utilized in landscaping. Native to the US.
When in standing water, often sends up large root projections called knees above surface of earth or water (note pics from Ft Worth).

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State tree of Louisiana.

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The Common Baldcypress grows wild in swamps, bottomlands, and along watercourses in a native range from southern Delaware & Maryland down the coastal plain into all of Florida over to southcentral Texas then up the Mississippi floodplain into southern Illinois and the southwest tip of Indiana. It grows about 1.5 to 2 feet/year for the first 50 years, and it is very long lived up to 1,200 years. The feathery, soft compound, linear, fine-textured, 2 ranked in a flat plane leaves that spiral around twigs turn a good brown-orange autumn color in autumn of this deciduous conifer. It bears rounded brown cones in fall. It has a shallow, fibrous root system and the submerged roots develop knees to intake air, and it is easy to transplant. This moisture-loving tree is sensitive to drought, and it can grow with a soil pH up to close to 7.0, after that it will develop iron chlorosis, as some did at the University of Illinois years ago where the pH was above 7 some points. It does fine when planted in average, upland, moist soils. It is occasionally planted in parks, office and industrial parks, around shopping centers, on estates, and larger public properties in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest of the US, as well as the South. Many larger, diverse nurseries and some native plant nurseries sell some. (The similar Dawn Redwood from China is less often planted and has larger, coarser leaves that are arranged opposite on the twigs.)

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This plant started from a tiny seedling about 20 years ago. It lost its top during the wretched ice storm of 2009, but still retained its very nice cone shape. The needle-like leaves turn orange in fall, then shed. It's the only one of the cypress trees that loses its leaves, which is why it's called the bald cypress.

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