Stephen Middleton from the Friends of Alexandra Park introduces us to his selection for November’s Tree of the Month…
The Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum), our November Tree of the Month, is not the most likely tree to see at nearly the highest point of our park. It is located on the Palace side of the edge of the 3-4-5 Playgroup area in The Grove and is best revealed just after the surrounding trees have lost their leaves. The location can be found on what 3 words is echo.defend.reef.
With its dramatic late autumn reddy-brown colour, this tall tree hails from the Florida Everglades and Louisiana swamplands and is also called the Bald Cypress. This conifer loses its leaves in the winter leaving it bald – hence the name.
One of the major peculiarities of this tree – not present in our specimen – are the knees or pneumatophores which are structures rising from the roots when they are submerged. They possibly pipe air to the roots or trap material around the roots adding to the stability of the tree. Swamp cypresses are able to resist winds of up to hurricane force with the aid of their substantial buttress root systems.
The bald cypress has been in this country for quite a while ever since the botanist, John Tradescant the Younger, brought some seeds back across the Atlantic in 1640.
The tree needs heat in the summer to grow well so the best examples are to be found in the east and the south of England where the tree may climb up towards 30m. Back in its native range, with even more favourable conditions, it can rise to 50m.
The bark of this tree is red and quite stringy and the wood is soft. However, it is resistant to fungal attack and is not liable to decay in wet situations. This has promoted its use in the U.S.A. for applications such as window frames and wooden buildings and it has been used by Native Americans in making canoes and coffins. Here it is mainly planted as a decorative tree for its light, feathery foliage which colours nicely this time of year.
The similar looking dawn redwood is another deciduous conifer that featured as the December 2022 tree of the month. The easiest way of telling the two apart is to look at how the twigs attach. In the dawn redwood they come in pairs on either side of the branch and in the swamp cypress they alternate.
If you search carefully you can find a newly planted bald cypress, still in its protective cage, at the opposite corner of the park near the tarmac path from Newland road heading up towards Alexandra Palace station.
