Montezuma Cypress
Taxodium mucronatum
Bald Cypress #2 in early June 2026 - sold to me incorrectly as a Montezuma Cypress, but is actually a Bald Cypress as indicated by the development of multiple knees - see later on this page for more details. Nevertheless, this tree is flourishing.
(Real?) Montezuma Cypress in early June 2026.
Leaf detail from early April 2020. These are leaves from the tree that is most likely actually a Bald Cypress.
Story of the Bald Cypress and Montezuma Cypress Trees
We had this 65 gallon tree delivered in August from Barbers Nursery in Alvin, and planted it ourselves on August 5th 2017. This is the largest tree we have planted ourselves and it was actually not too difficult - the main issue was the sweltering heat - "feels like" temperature of 102 degrees F despite it being early morning. Sunny, extremely humid, not the faintest breeze - a typical Texas summer morning. I decided that summer would be the best time to select a tree as I could make sure it hadn't gone yellow - this was one of the only nicely green "Montezuma Cypresses" remaining in the nursery - most of the other dozens of trees were almost as yellow as my Bald Cypress. It's hard to tell the difference between a Montezuma Cypress and a Bald Cypress but I have seen a few features that may help distinguish them. My "Montezuma Cypress" seemed to have redder bark (but that may be because much of the outer bark had peeled off). Also my "Montezuma Cypress" seemed to have more twigs that were somewhat pendulous, giving a drooping appearance. Another feature that I noticed was that my "Montezuma Cypress" had several leaves growing straight out of the lower trunk - I have never seen this on my Bald Cypress. I eventually discovered, however, that it is actually a Bald Cypress - see later on this page.
"Montezuma Cypress" just after planting in August 2017.
On August 19th 2017, the heat had been brutal for weeks and the south facing leaves of this tree looked like they were starting to be baked brown.
On April 22nd 2018, the tree had leafed out well and was looking healthy. The second picture below is from July 2018.
Nice rusty autumn color in early December 2018.
The "Montezuma Cypress" did well in 2019, surviving the particularly hot and dry summer, and remaining green. Several knees showed up within and also outside the mulch ring - I counted 10 knees outside the mulch ring. Below is a picture of the knees, with the grass and mulch removed - the knees are the orange blobs. The fact that there are so many knees leads me to conclude that this is actually a Bald Cypress (so Bald Cypress #2 in my yard), as Montezuma Cypresses are not supposed to produce knees.
The picture below is of Bald Cypress #2 in late June 2019. On surfing the internet on September 26th 2020, I discovered that a website, thetreecenter.com, "borrowed" my 2019 image to advertise their mail-order Montezuma Cypress trees. They saturated the colors, edited me out of it, and labeled it "montezuma-cypress-1-cut_guy_out". Of course no permission was asked. The first picture below is my picture, and the second one is from their website. Amazing. ​
The tree leafed out well in 2020, but by the end of May several of the leaves were browning. Nowhere near as badly as my original Bald Cypress, but still worrying. Close inspection revealed a severe affliction by the tiny bald cypress rust mite.​ In the picture below the mites are the yellowish blobs and their shed skins are the white flakes.
As mentioned earlier, it is very likely that this tree is actually a Bald Cypress, as opposed to a Montezuma Cypress, as strongly indicated by the presence of multiple knees that are growing ever larger and more numerous. This would not be the first time that a tree nursery gets it wrong - in fact the only nursery where the employee was very knowledgeable, out of all the nurseries I have visited, was Bill Bownds Nursery. All other nurseries I have visited have boasted employees / owners with superficial or no knowledge about the trees they sell. The employee at Barbers Nursery who sold me this tree was actually one of the better ones, but still seems to have got this one wrong.
The picture below is of the "Montezuma Cypress" = Bald Cypress #2 in early July 2020.
In late September 2020, I found a 5 gallon supposed Montezuma Cypress tree for sale at Buchanan's Native Plants in Houston - although they have sometimes displayed shocking examples of mis-labeled trees (for example a Water Oak labeled as a Nuttall Oak), I am taking another gamble on this one. I planted it in the sweltering early morning heat and humidity of September 27th 2020. We'll see if it too develops knees.
The new (and hopefully real) Montezuma Cypress leafed out very nicely in the spring of 2021. Many leaves growing directly from the trunk.
Real? Montezuma Cypress (late June 2021).
Bald Cypress #2 (early July 2021).
Bald Cypress and Montezuma Cypress, from mid-July 2022, and late June 2023, and late June 2025.