FireApproved

United States / Grow / bald cypress

bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
Photo: (c) William J. Deml, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

bald cypress

Taxodium distichum · Cupressaceae · all Taxodium records · also called Baldcypress · Wikipedia

View Saved

Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Bald cypress cannot be called reliably fire resistant because reputable sources reach opposite conclusions.

Six assessments split two favorable and four unfavorable. NC State’s 2005 guidance gives bald cypress a low rating on its four-level flammability scale, and its 2025 guidance again calls the tree low in flammability. Those findings place it among the North Carolina plants recommended on that measure.

Other authorities are much more cautious. A USDA Forest Service and state Firewise selector assigns bald cypress “Not Firewise,” the least favorable result on its four-step scale. Ohio State gives it H on a five-band scale, while Virginia Tech also gives it H on a three-band scale; both institutions treat H as a reason to avoid the plant. Diputació de Girona and Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya rate bald cypress “very discouraged” for garden suitability, assuming species-specific care. Fuel structure, maintenance, origin, and invasiveness enter that judgment alongside fire research and fire-service experience.

These sources do not ask exactly the same question. Some rate flammability, the eastern selector judges Firewise performance, and the Catalan method weighs broader garden suitability for wildfire prevention. Their regional settings also range from North Carolina to the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, eastern United States, and Catalonia. Bald cypress is a deciduous conifer that can reach about 100 feet, so the disagreement matters for a substantial tree near a home. The sound conclusion is mixed: favorable North Carolina ratings exist, but they do not erase several explicit warnings elsewhere.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Form
tree
Mature height
~100 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
high
Rated in
Catalonia, Spain; Georgetown, Texas; Global; NC +6
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Placement evidence
5 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Catalonia, Spain; Georgetown, Texas; Global; NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US; Ohio / Midwest; Oregon (Willamette Valley); Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Typed publication scope: 5 scopes across 5 cited fire sources
  • Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina (AG-874) · Official scoped edition
    • NC; complete normalized coverage · 2025-03-26

      The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.

  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

  • Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley (EM 9103) · Official scoped edition
    • Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01

      OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.

  • Firewise Plant Guide · Official scoped edition
    • Sun City Texas, Georgetown (TX footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-14

      The guide is authored for the Sun City Texas community in Georgetown. FireApproved publishes 142 exact owners only as community-level context. It is an archived HOA exhibit with unknown rating lineage, not a current statewide Texas source or an independent Tier 1 determination.

  • Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
    • VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15

      Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MD, MO, MS, NC, NY, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA.
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

19

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

19 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Delaware (DE)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • New York (NY)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Virginia (VA)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (4)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

Avoids (5)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

  • Firewise Plant Guide — Sun City Texas Firewise Group · updated January 14, 2015 · original source Corroboration HOA exhibit lineage: unknown

    “high”

    The table rates Cypress, Bald — Taxodium distichum high for flammability hazard, defined as the ease a plant can burn at high temperatures for a prolonged time.

Listed without a rating (11)
Corroboration (11 rows from 1 source)

  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    11 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Belcher2016: Belcher, C. M. (2016). The influence of leaf morphology on litter flammability and its utility for interpreting palaeofire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371, 20150163.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Belcher2016-1; sampling ND.

      • “time to flaming (s): 6.83”

        FLAMITS record 610; Ignitability measurement.

      • “burning duration (s): 42.73”

        FLAMITS record 625; Sustainability measurement.

      • Shared measurement context: Combustibility measurement.

        • “maximum energy release rate (kW): 2.56”

          FLAMITS record 640.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 2087.47”

          FLAMITS record 655.

    • Primary study Varner2021: Varner, J. M., Kane, J. M., Kreye, J. K., & Shearman, T. M. (2021). Litter Flammability of 50 Southeastern North American Tree Species: Evidence for Mesophication Gradients Across Multiple Ecosystems. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, 727042. Primary-study method: freshly fallen litter was oven-dried at 50–60°C for at least 24 hours to constant mass; each trial used a 15 g dry litter fuelbed, with five to seven trials per species.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2021-1; sampling ND.

    • Primary study Zhang2022: Zhang, S., Cornwell, W. K., Zhao, W., van Logtestijn, R. S., Krab, E. J., Aerts, R., & Cornelissen, J. H. (2022). Experimental evidence that leaf litter decomposability and flammability are decoupled across gymnosperm species. Journal of Ecology, 111, 761-772.

      Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Zhang2022-1; sampling january and march 2011.

      • “maximum flame temperature (°C): 509.37”

        FLAMITS record 15578; Combustibility measurement.

      • “flaming duration (s): 1.6”

        FLAMITS record 15619; Sustainability measurement.

Fire-resistant trees instead

post oak
Quercus stellata American basswood
Tilia americana red maple
Acer rubrum black cherry
Prunus serotina white oak
Quercus alba American beech
Fagus grandifolia

Fire-resistant trees listed above

Same genus in the directory · the Taxodium group page

Guides that discuss this plant

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Taxodium distichum (Baldcypress). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/taxodium-distichum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.