2004 Theodore Klein Plant Award Winners

Shawnee Brave™ baldcypress is a strongly pyramidal deciduous conifer as seen in the photo supplied by the person that introduced Shawnee Brave™ Earl Cully, Hertitage® Trees, Inc., Jacksonville, Illinois. The images shows the narrow habit of the parent tree. Baldcypress tend to be very tolerant of environmental conditions; known for tolerance of flooding and frequently found growing in wet, marshy conditions it has been observed growing well in dry soils of cultivated sites in west Kentucky. The "knees" that grow from the root systems can be found when the plant is grown in wet locations and do not develop in normal landscape conditions. For more information on the species see the Kentucky Trees website. Very nice plantings of the species next to a water feature with knees can be see at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnatti and the planting of mixed Taxodium cultivars, including Shawnee Brave™, around the lake at Bernheim is a beautiful frequently-photographed scene. Fall color is a "worthy" bronze-orange. Mike Dirr, noted plantsman and prolific author calls Taxodium distichum "A stately tree, a decided accent of texture and form, --".