Located in a large pond in the "Retiro" park in Madrid, Spain are several fine specimens of Bald Cypress trees (Taxodium distichum), also called Swamp Cypress or Baldcypress. These trees are growing in a man made pond in front of a crystal palace that was built in 1887 to house an exposition of plants from the Philipines. It was patturned after the Crystal Palace that was built in London in 1851.
Today the crystal palace stands empty execpt for an occasional exposition of art etc. The pond in front of the palace with its Swamp Cypress trees is a favorite of turists and photographers. A pathway winds around the prerimeter of the pond and at one point even goes through a cave from where you can look out through the water fall and observe several of the trees.
Bald Cypress trees have a trunk that is quite wide at the base as you can see in the image below. These trees also turn a bright golden color in the fall and are a very pretty sight to behold.
The cones of the Bald Cypress are similar in shape to those of the Common Cypress despite the fact that they belong to different genus.
Not too far from the "Palacio de Cristal" there is another tree from same tree family (genus) that is the oldest and most impressive tree in the park. It is a Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) and goes by the name "Ahuehuete del Parterre".
No comments:
Post a Comment