Baldcypress Swamps

Baldcypress, the state tree of Louisiana, is a large, long-lived deciduous conifer tree found in riparian areas in the southeastern United States. Individual trees can be thousands of years old and hundreds of feet tall. Baldcypress is among the few tree species that host Spanish moss, an iconic gray bromeliad that contributes to the great symbolic value of cypress swamps in the culture of the Deep South.

Cypress trees, which tend to grow in flat areas subject to frequent and prolonged flooding, play a critical role in swamp ecology. Associated tree species may include water tupelo, pond cypress, and black gum trees, and these ecosystems are among the world’s most prolific producers of biomass. Large cypresses provide sheltered buttresses for fish. Yellow-throated warblers forage in the Spanish moss and resurrection fern associated with baldcypress foliage. Bald eagles and ospreys nest in the crowns. The seeds are an important food source for wildlife, including wild turkeys, evening grosbeaks, squirrels, wood ducks, and the now-extinct Carolina parakeet.

Cypress swamps play an important role in mitigating flooding. The trees’ extended, raised root systems help slow down and spread floodwaters, helping water infiltrate the soil. Acting as natural sponges, the swamps are effective in reducing damage from flooding and trapping sediment and pollution.

Baldcypress trees are damaged by a fungus that attacks the heartwood of the tree from the crown to the base, stopping only after the tree is dead. Baldcypress leafroller, an insect, attacks trees in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana, causing defoliation and dieback of affected cypresses. Seedlings are threatened by nutria, a large rodent that can quickly uproot and destroy cypresses over a large area.