General Landscape Uses:
Accent or specimen tree in wet soils.
Availability:
Widely cultivated. 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 suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.
Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.
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.
References: Miami-Dade County Landscape Manual
(2005).
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.
