david korte photographs

Slowly revealing in a dissipating fog, Pond cypress, Taxodium ascendens, and the larger Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, populate the cypress swamp along Corkscrew Sanctuary boardwalk. The Bald cypress at Corkscrew are the largest remaining tract of old-growth cypress in the world, some of which may be 500 years old.

Pond cypress are smaller than Bald cypress, with light-gray, fissured bark often splotched with lichens. Cypress knees grow up from the roots of these trees, protruding above the surface of the swamp.

A swamp devoid of surface water continues to thrive as water rests just below the surface. Other plants finding a home in the cypress swamp include many kinds of ferns, maples, mosses, pond apples, and lichens. This swamp will become submerged as the rainy season progresses.