Cypress
Once called the wood eternal. Old growth earned the name.
Taxodium distichum Bald Cypress · Bald Cypress · Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States from southern Delaware and Maryland south through Florida and west to eastern Texas
Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States from southern Delaware and Maryland south through Florida and west to eastern Texas.
A deciduous conifer. Heartwood from light yellow-brown to reddish brown.
What you see.
Heartwood from light yellow-brown to reddish brown. Sinker logs pulled out of southern rivers run warmer and darker. Sapwood nearly white, sharply separated. Pecky cypress — the leftover of a fungal infection that died out — has finger-sized voids running with the grain. Rustic paneling people pay extra for it.
Heartwood, this specimen
How the grain runs.
Straight. Medium to coarse. A slightly oily feel from the natural extractives. Old-growth shows a sharper earlywood-to-latewood transition than plantation stock.
Closer in
On the bench.
Old-growth heartwood was called the wood eternal. Second-growth is only moderately durable — the cypressene that does the work takes decades to build up. Sapwood is non-durable. Works fine by hand or machine. Soft, so a dull edge raises the grain. Glues and finishes well. Holds paint and stain. Nail-holding is moderate. Sour, a little rancid at the cut. Goes away with seasoning. Reported sensitizer. Dust can hit the lungs. Pollen is its own problem in the South.
The numbers, looked at directly.
0lbf
2,270 N. Side-hardness — force to embed a half-inch steel ball halfway into the wood.
0lbs/ft³
515 kg/m³. At 12% MC.
0.42/ 0.46 at 12% MC
Basic over green volume; second number at 12% moisture content.
A side-hardness measurement. Higher number, harder wood.
On sourcing
Old growth nearly exhausted. Sinker logs fill the gap.
Not on CITES. IUCN Least Concern globally. Some states protect inland populations — Indiana lists it Threatened. Old-growth is mostly gone. Sinker logs salvaged from rivers and bottoms are a real share of the supply now.
What it's for.
- Exterior siding
- Shingles
- Decking
- Docks & bridges
- Boatbuilding
- Beams
- Pecky paneling
Worth knowing.
A deciduous conifer. Drops its needles every fall. The knees that come up out of swamp roots — nobody has settled the function. Old-growth and sinker stock cost more because plantation second-growth does not have the same decay resistance.
Sources & references.
- Wood Handbook — Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-282) (2021)
- Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) — FPL Tech Sheet
- Silvics of North America: Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. — Baldcypress (1990)
- Taxodium distichum — IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2013)
- Taxodium distichum
- Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)