Anyone in Bald Cypress country?

rlist

Dale Cochoy has a good story on his website that might explain it in detail enough for you. Note, if it is growing in dirt as opposed to a mucky swamp, you will want to dig it out of the ground.

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eminart

I'm not sure that the main tree in that photo is a BC. Are you sure it is? It looks like an oak or something with some BC knees from another tree beside it.

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rockm

"Note, if it is growing in dirt as opposed to a mucky swamp, you will want to dig it out of the ground."

Not necessarily. If the tree is sawed out with only a little (or sometime no) feeder roots, keeping it in wet conditions will force them pretty soon. They're pretty vigorous growers and if you get a pretty healthy one, almost indestructible. I got my brother in Texas to buy a four inch diameter 10 foot tall BC at a roadside nursery that I could turn into a bonsai. Being that I live in Va., shipping the whole thing would have been problematic. I told him to saw the trunk down to two feet above the roots, and air mail me that part. He is pretty much a cheap skate, so he plunked the severed upper portion in a bucket of water in his backyard not wanting to waste the other 3/4 of the tree (that cost all of $25) The thing pushed new roots in a month. It is happily growing in the ground in his backyard now.

Eminart, the tree in the photo is of a BC. Note the buttress on the trunk --the ridges--are a dead giveaway for BC.

eminart

Yes, but the growth pattern just doesn't look like a BC to me. The very large, gnarly, lower branches don't look anything like the BC's I'm accustomed to seeing around here. BC's tend to grow straight up with relatively thin branches compared to trunk size, much like our pines here in Alabama.

I've also seen various other types of trees form similar buttresses, especially when they're growing on the edge of a swamp or some sort of water.

I'm not saying it's NOT a BC, it's just a unique-looking one, if it is.

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"I want life in every word
to the extend that it's absurd....." -- the postal service

rockm

The growth pattern isn't unnusual for BC at all. They can take a big variety of forms, depending on where they're growing and how the local environment shapes them. Old BC like this one, probably have been broken and rebroken in their upper regions by storms, and have relied on their lower branches to survive.

Here's a photo of an old one I found that shows similar characteristics:
http://sports.webshots.com/photo/22...101407719tGaKfa

rockm

Another:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/...042217084DnPaDQ

MacInOakRidge

Rock, Watch out for those wild hogs, they'll eat you up. A Moma wild boar is worst than a Moma bear.

Ang3lFir3

John... I'm not sure if its still there.... I'll make sure to have Vic see if she can remember. If not we can try and see if Daniel still has it somewhere (there are just a couple BC's in the garden ).


If it's still around I can try and remember to get a pic of it on Sunday (depending on weather)

rockm

"Rock, Watch out for those wild hogs, they'll eat you up. A Moma wild boar is worst than a Moma bear."

Just another one of the hazards in collecting a BC from the wild...

For those of you that don't have access to wild collected trees in the South, think about nurseries. I've seen (and bought) a few reasonable BC already in containers from nurseries in Texas. A nice 3 inch diameter trunked tree can go for as little as $25 if you look at the right time --the end of the summer--and in the right place.

These already containerized trees are a step ahead of the wild collected variety as they already have small compact root systems. Some even have some pretty good buttress going too..