EPOD - a service of USRA
The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.
Bald Cypress Trees and Their Enigmatic “knees”
May 07, 2021
PattiW_DSC08923 (003)
PattiW_DSC08930 2 (002)
Photographer: Patti Weeks
Summary Author: Patti Weeks
The Bald Cypress tree ( Taxodium distichum), native to the
southeastern United States, thrives in the humid climates of the
eastern coastal plain from Delaware, down through Florida, over to
eastern Texas and up the Mississippi River to southern Illinois. It’s a
long-lived, water-loving symbol of the swamp that grows to typical
heights of 35–120 feet (10–40 m), with average trunk diameters of 3–6
feet (0.9–1.8 m). However, records list the tallest cypress tree in
Virginia at 145 feet (44.11 m), the stoutest in Texas at 39 feet
(~12 m) and the oldest living tree in southeastern North Carolina
at 2,264 years old. As a testament to their longevity, an
underwater bald cypress forest was discovered in 2012 several miles
off the coast of Mobile, Alabama, 60 feet below the surface of the Gulf
of Mexico. Likely uncovered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the
well-preserved forest contains trees that are about 52,000 years old
and thus most likely lived in the early glacial interval of the last
ice age.
The trees pictured here, more average in dimensions, are seen in their
normal water level in the Cypress-Gum Swamp area of the 324-acre
River Park North, which is adjacent to the Tar River in
east-central Greenville, North Carolina. The water level can rise
several feet higher after a heavy rain along with the rise in the river
level. (If you look closely, you can see the water level mark on the
largest tree, made by the 500-year flood of the Tar River as a result
of the 1999 Hurricane Floyd.)
Peculiar growths of cypress trees in swamps are “ cypress knees”
that grow vertically from their roots above the normal water level.
Their actual function is unclear, but it’s speculated that they may
provide oxygen to the roots (as a possible pneumatophore), allow
nutrient accumulation or that they add stability to the wide,
buttressed bases of the trees in the soft, muddy soil. While the
function of cypress knees continues to be researched, the aeration
theory seems to be the most popular.
Photo Details: Top - SONY DSC-RX10 IV camera; 33.51 mm focal length;
f/3.5; 1/640 second exposure; ISO 800. Bottom - Same except 90.45 mm
focal length; f/4.
River Park North, North Carolina Coordinates: 35.6280, -77.3598
Related EPODs
Bald Cypress Trees and Their Enigmatic “knees” Terraces Dryland
Farming Development of a Zinnia Flower A Tree is Known by its
Fruit Trumpet Lichen Duckweed at Crabtree Nature Center,
Illinois
More...
Plant Links
* Discover Life
* Tree Encyclopedia
* What are Phytoplankton?
* Encyclopedia of Life - What is a Plant?
* USDA Plants Database
* University of Texas Native Plant Database
* Plants in Motion
* What Tree is It?
-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.
https://epod.usra.edu
--- up 12 hours, 15 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)