Territory - Park of the Queen

Bald cypress (or swamp cypress)- Taxodium distichum :

Plant native to the south-eastern United States, where it can be found in lowland forests or wetlands.
It was introduced in Europe in the mid-seventeenth century.
Very long-lived tree (living up to 1000 years), which can reach 40 meters in height.
Majestic and pyramidal bearing in old specimens.
The straight trunk has a gray-brown or tawny-gray bark, longitudinally weakened.
At the base it's expanded and surrounded by large conical spikes about one meter high (pneumatophores) that emerge from the mud, allowing the roots to breathe.
Needle-like leaves, flat and soft, light green coloured and circa 2 cm long 2 are distichous, opposite in the branches of the year, alternating in the older brabches.
During fall they take on a reddish-brown color before falling.
The male catkins, ovoid and gathered in small groups on terminal spikes, the female ones, at the base of the male ears, are greenish and round.
The fruit is a spherical galbulo (1,5-3 cm diameter), green-brownish, that comes undone completely to maturity and which is made up of sterile scales and fertile ones, the latter housing two more or less triangular seeds.
In the United States the wood of cypress, tender but resistant to fungal attack, it is much used.