Bald Cypress Knees - Oxygen Access Points
A week or so ago, I posted some photos of a large Willow Oak tree from a visit to a corporate headquarters and referenced some other landscaping there (the cloud-like hedge ). The campus is surrounded by a TPC golf course named Southwind and has quite a few mature trees. They also have done a nice job of creating some educational material and signage about some of the trees they have on hand including this Bald Cypress or "Baldcypress" as the sign indicates. We have a tiny Bald Cypress - or Baldy Cypress - out front on the north side of our driveway. According to my inventory this Summer, it grew just 1" in height . But...back to the sign: the second sentence reads: "The raised conical knees, part of the root system, are believed to help the roots attain oxygen." Raised knees?! What the heck? I had never heard of Cypress Knees. But...looking around the tree - and sure enough - there were a bunch of these surface roots: ...