The Legacy Cypress
In 1963, Louisiana designted bald cypress (Taxodium distichum ) as the official state tree.
Unlike most conifers which are evergreen, the cypress tree is deciduous that means it loses its needles in the fall-giving the tree a "bald" appearance.
The shape of the bald cypress depends vastly on the amount and duration of flooding in the area.
When it is located in swampy areas, the bald cypress forms "knees-knots" for stability that grow up from the roots.
Cypress wood is very resistant to decomposition and the wood is deemed useful for a spectrum of related products.
For Louisiana indigenous and colonists, cypress trees were once a historic building pillar.
Aged-growth cypress heartwood includes cypress oil, offering the wood precious features that allow it to flourish in the climate of South Louisiana.
The oil makes the wood rot-resistant, rendering it an optimal boat-building product ; it was used in the past to construct pirogues as well as bigger bateaus and skiffs.
Also resistant to termite, the old lumber was perfect for constructing houses; and still existing Acadian-style houses are evidence of the durability of the wood.
Timber and lumber businesses collected hundreds of thousands of acres of cypress trees in the late twentieth century, resulting in the depletion of the ' virgin ' old-growth cypress.
Trees inspire, and they have always held a great prestige for the writers' inspirational moods.
Such magnificent giants — the few left in the late 1800s after clear-cutting — seem to float on the calm waters, their smooth reflections doubling visual pleasure.
Due to the aesthetics of color and contrast, this watery landscape is perhaps more moving.
When darkness falls, knee roots are subtle crayon renderings under the orange sky of Louisiana, the cypress silhouettes and their above-water.