This is the seed cone from one of the bald cypress trees in my backyard in suburbia. There are scores of them on the ground and hundreds of them still up in the two trees. I spent the morning one fine Saturday recently collecting as many of these as I could find (being careful to avoid collecting the other roundish, brownish things also on the ground in the backyard). My plan was to scatter them in likely spots in the woods at Roundrock in my benign attempt to get some to grow as volunteers there, much as I have the walnuts of an earlier post. My dispersal method will be about the same. Since cypress tend to thrive in moist soil, I intend to drop them in the "headwaters" of the mostly dry stream that forms the Central Valley of my woods. That's just inside the entrance, and I always like to poke around there to see what there is to see. I'll also deposit some at the top of one of the ravines on the north side of the property. The plan is for the water (when it comes) to carry the seeds downstream, depositing them in various places along the way. Many of these will no doubt get left in gravel. Some may wash up on dry ground. Some may make it all the way to the lake. But a few, I hope, will find some benevolent nooks and set down roots. Of those that grow, many will be ravaged by the deer and other critters, but the odds still favor a few of them making it. Cypress are common in the Bootheel of Missouri, known as "Swampeast" to those from there. This is Mississippi River bottom land, and before channelization to drain the land, great swamps and lakes filled the area. In my part of Missouri, the west central part, cypress trees are not native. And in my part of that part, mostly ridgetop, cypress trees would not have grown naturally at all. But I have two growing there that I planted as little sticks years ago. One is now much taller than I, and I hope it grows to be 150 feet tall, which is possible. So I am hopeful about my little effort with the cypress seeds. It's a long-term project, obviously. They say that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is right now! You can find my earlier Cypress stories post here. Sycamore stories are here. And Maple stories are here. Missouri calendar:

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