The genus Taxodium has three living members. First and greatest is T. distichum, our famous bald cypress, which is found up and down the Mississippi embayment, the Gulf Coast, and the Atlantic seaboard from Delaware to Miami. Less well-known is T. ascendens, the pond cypress, which has a similar but much reduced range. Finally there is T. mucronatum, the Montezuma bald cypress, whose native range is mostly within Mexico and Central America, although a few of the Texas counties on the Rio Grande are counted as well.
Consequently, the Montezuma bald cypress isn't native to Louisiana or the southeastern United States. But having all three Taxodium species in the arboretum allows any visitor to see for themselves the dissimilarities that exist within this one genus.
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| There are two Montezuma bald cypresses in the arboretum collection. Way back in the '80s, Professor Leuck purchased their predecessors from Woodlanders Nursery (Aiken, SC), and he planted them in his yard on Albany Avenue in Shreveport. In 1994, Professor Leuck collected and rooted two cuttings from the Albany Avenue property, and in the fall of 1995, he planted the new trees on the periphery of the arboretum, near the lower level entrance to the Student Union Building. |
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| The Montezuma bald cypresses are tucked in between the two staircases, flanking the doorway. Today, this is the entrance to the Post Office. Thirty years ago in 1995, it was the entrance to the campus bookstore. These trees have witnessed a great deal of change. |
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| On the left side of the doorway, we see the southern-most tree. Its trunk is noticeably thicker. |
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| On the right side of the doorway, we see the northern-most tree. Its trunk has a smaller diameter. Given that these trees are growing far north of their native zone, maybe its microclimate exposure to colder weather makes this the slower-growing specimen. |
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| The staircase provides a neat vantage point, and it also allows us to see the leaves up close. Over the years, the lower limbs of the cypresses were removed so that pedestrians could easily move about without ducking all of those branches. |
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| The soft, feather-like needles are arranged either in an alternate or spiralling pattern. The needles are mostly evergreen under good conditions, lasting until spring when they drop to make way for new growth. |
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| Here we see approximately 40 pairs of needles on one branchlet. Unfortunately the number of needles varies quite a bit and isn't particularly diagnostic between species. The small blunted tips of each needle gave rise to the binomial species name; mucronatum refers to an abruptly angled point. |
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| The southernmost tree has the thicker trunk, potentially because it has access to more sunlight. Its trunk has fewer lower limbs. |
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| The trunk with the smaller diameter has more lower limbs. |
An additional photo, showing the relative heights of the two trees, would be useful here. Perhaps the thinner-trunked tree is taller. And we forgot something else! In the future we need to add photos of these trees' cypress knees... just kidding! They don't have any. This is typical of Taxodium mucronatum, and the absence of knees on a cypress should set off alarm bells that one isn't dealing with the typical bald cypress.
Useful external links
US Forest Service page on T. mucronatum
USDA Plant Database profile on T. mucronatum
