From Tamara Pittman, via Facebook: Hi, I was wondering if anyone in this group has come across mention of bald cypress in Oklahoma in Nuttall’s journals. Several of our lakes have stands of cypress scattered throughout inaccessible areas, which certainly makes it look like they were naturalized and not planted. Any thoughts? This photo was taken at Greenleaf.
Steve: Bald cypress is generally considered to be native only in southeastern OK, along the Little River, with a few trees further north along the Mountain Fork. Everywhere else in the state it has been planted. Elbert Little (he of Trees of Oklahoma) did a study in the 1930s (published in 1980) and came to the conclusions I’ve cited. Nuttall mentions bald cypress only once, along the Mississippi, early in his trip, in Missouri (pg. 54 in Lottinville’s edition). He did not mention it when he went to the confluence of the Kiamichi with the Red River. He probably did not get far enough east to encounter it down there. Interestingly, bald cypress extended west along the Arkansas River past Little Rock, but never made it to Oklahoma, though it grows well here if planted, as you observe. (Reference: Little 1980. Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) in Oklahoma. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 60:105-107)