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Botanical Name: Taxodium distichum 'Cascade Falls'
Common Name: Weeping Bald Cypress
Origin: Southeastern USA
Location: CSW
Notable Feature: This cone-bearing, deciduous conifer is a compact, weeping form of the bald cypress with pendulous branches that cascade to the ground.
Habit: ‘Cascade Falls' grows to 8 to 10 feet tall over the first 10 to 15 years, eventually maturing to as much as 20 feet tall. It is typically grafted to Taxodium distichum understock at a desired height and the branches then weep downward from the point of the graft. If not grafted or otherwise supported, the foliage of this weeping cultivar would simply sprawl along the ground as a ground cover.
Flower: Monoecious (male and female flowers occur separately on the same tree). Males are in 3 to 5-inch long hanging panicles and females are small, rounded with circular scales and occur near the branch tips. Emerge March to April.
Fruit: Cones are quite small and composed of rounded scales forming a woody sphere, ½ to 1” in diameter. Purplish green when young and ripening to brown. This cultivar does not produce viable seed.
Foliage: Chartreuse to light green, fern-like, bi-pinnately compound leaves mature to medium green and turn an outstanding orange cinnamon color in the fall before they are shed.
Bark: The shaggy bark is deep brown and exfoliating.
Interesting Fact: Although it looks like a needled evergreen, it is in fact deciduous, “bald” as the common name suggests. Bald-cypress cones are reminiscent of the cones of the giant coastal redwoods of California (Sequoia sempervirens); Taxodium and Sequoia are both members of the Redwood Family (Taxodiaceae).