I've been looking for this bald cypress for 18 years.

I have been venturing into the swamps every January or February for the past 18 years.  I think I finally found the tree I've been looking for.  My initial assessment is that the tree will be a flattop bald cypress.  The tree is hollow a the base.  There are two knees.  This tree looks as if it has a long history behind it.  Thus, it cannot have a formal upright appearance.  That's the appearance of our immature bald cypress trees.  There is so much going on at the base, the top has to show great age as well.  

To me, the knees look like a woman praying.  My wife sees a duck.

The third image, below, is a tree I photographed on a recent kayak trip.  It has a deadwood feature that runs the length of the tree.  At the base of this feature, the wood has been removed to form a hollow.  This is remarkably like the missing wood at the base of my collected tree.  I may end up doing the same thing to this tree.  I just don't know yet.

thats a really good find i do see the woman praying too.

Congrats on your find, very nice base you've got there! What's the width of the base at the soil level and again just above the flair? What is your planned final height and ratio?

Looks like fun!

congragulations, nice base, I also see a woman spraying!
waiting for this tree in future!

Awesome find; congratulations! Oh to own such a beauty!

hometeamrocker wrote:Congrats on your find, very nice base you've got there! What's the width of the base at the soil level and again just above the flair? What is your planned final height and ratio?

Looks like fun!

The base at the soil line is about 14 inches. Just above the flair, the tree is a little over 4 inches in diameter. At the very top, about 3 inches.

I want this tree to be a tall stretch of a tree. Bald cypress trees are like that. With a flair like this, coming up with a ratio seems a bit difficult. I want to keep it to the traditional 48-inch limit.

The final design could be a traditional flat-top with the crown at 48 inches. Or I could go with a jin-topped cypress with about 8-10 inches of deadwood and a flat-top crown at 40 inches. An example drawing of another tree I'm working on can be found HERE

Way to go, Bill.
A trees with knees is a worthy goal.
Good luck with it.

That is very nice to have a Taxodium with knees...wow.

I for one, will wait in anticipation to see what you are going to do with your wonderfull find.

This is my Taxodium wanting to be a formal upright.  So, immitating an young Swamp Cypress.  The hollow at the bottom was created by borers, which I craved out...



Love and light

Nice taper to a nice apex!

Andre Beaurain wrote:This is my Taxodium wanting to be a formal upright.  So, immitating an young Swamp Cypress.  

Andre,

I'd go with something much older in appearance. There is so much going on with your tree, to call it "young" seems out of place. Young trees are happy and scar-free. This tree has that wide opening at the bottom and the deadwood at the top, this is not what a young tree looks like. This is what an old wizened tree looks like. It's seen the force of many years and it has endured.

BillsBayou wrote:I have been venturing into the swamps every January or February for the past 18 years.  I think I finally found the tree I've been looking for.  My initial assessment is that the tree will be a flattop bald cypress.  The tree is hollow a the base.  There are two knees.  This tree looks as if it has a long history behind it.  Thus, it cannot have a formal upright appearance.  That's the appearance of our immature bald cypress trees.  There is so much going on at the base, the top has to show great age as well.  

To me, the knees look like a woman praying.  My wife sees a duck.

The third image, below, is a tree I photographed on a recent kayak trip.  It has a deadwood feature that runs the length of the tree.  At the base of this feature, the wood has been removed to form a hollow.  This is remarkably like the missing wood at the base of my collected tree.  I may end up doing the same thing to this tree.  I just don't know yet.

Nice find, Bill. I collected a similar specimen many years ago (it didn't make it), but the knees were not as far off the main buttressing roots as yours. Yours are really nicely in scale. Keep us posted as you develop it.

Zach