When a plant that should be compact or shrubby gets too lanky with exposed lower stems, it is described as ‘leggy’. We do not hear much about plants that develop ‘knees’. Perhaps that is because there is only one species that does so. That one species happens to be very rare here. If there are other specie that develop knees, I do not know what they are.
‘Knees’ are weird appendages that grow upward like stalagmites from the roots of bald cypress Taxodium distichum, particularly where the trees grow wild in swampy conditions. Knees can get quite tall. One of our professors used to tell us that they could do some serious damage to a canoe. Perhaps knees are why bald cypress is locally unpopular in landscapes.
However, I happened to notice that bald cypress is a common street tree in downtown Oklahoma City. Just like most other street trees, they are installed into small tree wells, but otherwise surrounded by pavement. They were remarkably healthy and well structured specimens that were too young to have damaged the pavement. Yet, I could not help but wonder what they will do as they mature. Even before the trunks grow as big around as the small tree wells that they are in, what would happen if knees develop?
There happens to be not one, but two bald cypress at work. The smaller is alongside a small stream. The larger is adjacent to a lawn where the soil is seemingly dry on the surface, but quite soggy just below the surface. This larger specimen is already developing distended burls that seem to be rudimentary knees. Although there is no pavement to break, the tree happens to be shading a picnic area where knees, if they develop, would be quite an obtrusive problem.
Tony Tomeo 
I remeber visiting a farm once in northern New Zealand where the farmer had planted these to dry out a very wet area, there were knees up to a foot high … everywhere.
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We use willows for that, but they are so sloppy, and fall over onto each other to make in impassable thicket. I would not have thought of bald cypress because they are so uncommon.
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We have a lot of lowland, swamps and marshes in Tidewater Virginia where native bald cypress is very happy. Beautiful trees. Not easy on kayaks either but paddling through a old stand is worth every nick and scratch.
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Ours are certainly not exemplary specimens, but we are rather protective of them, as if they too will someday be impressive.
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We also have those around here and are usually in a swampy area. I have a photo of a little boy leaning on a knee that is as tall as him.
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How tall do knees get? I remember them only from pictures in school.
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I would say the one I took a photo of, was about 3 feet tall.
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Oh, that is not too bad, although I suppose one that is three feet tall could do the same damage to a kayak as one that is bigger. I thought that they would get six feet tall or taller.
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Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:
As I was recycling this three year old article, it occurred to me that the larger of our two bald cypress is now gone. It needed to be removed to relinquish space for a picnic area for outdoor dining (during the situation with Covid). The buttressed roots were just too lumpy.
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