Taxodium ascendens, also known as Pond Cypress, is a species of Taxodium native to the southeastern United States, from coastal North Carolina to southeastern Louisiana. Many botanists treat it as a variety of Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum (as T. distichum var. imbricarium) rather than as a distinct species, but it differs in ecology, occurring mainly in still blackwater rivers, ponds and swamps without silt-rich flood deposits. Compared to T. distichum, the leaves are shorter (3-10 mm long), slenderer and are on shoots that tend to be erect rather than spreading; the cones also tend to be smaller, not over 2.5 cm diameter. The bark is also a paler gray color. Like Bald Cypresses, Pond Cypresses growing in water have a peculiarity of growth called cypress knees; these are woody projections sent above the water from the roots.

Image:Taxodium distichum2.jpg|Young cultivated trees at Longwood Gardens Image:Taxodium distichum3.jpg|Spring foliage, Longwood Gardens

References and external links

• Flora of North America (as T. distichum var. imbricarium)

Cupressaceae

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