Page 12 - St Giles Catesby booklet MC StG 20210723 e-flip_Neat

Bald cypress and Carolina parakeet

The finely divided foliage of the bald
cypress resembles the fronds of ferns and
forms a filigree pattern. Being a conifer,
the tree does not produce colourful
flowers, and unlike many related trees –
pines, spruces, cedars, for example – the
leaves last only one season and drop off as
winter approaches. Often the "fall colour"
is spectacular.
Bald cypresses tend to occur around
the margins of ponds and swamps – Mark
Catesby called the tree an "Aquatic". He
noted the value of the excellent timber
especially for "covering Houses", in other
words for making roof tiles that were light
in weight yet durable and weather-resistant.
In his book, Catesby illustrated a
Carolina parakeet perched among the twigs
of the bald cyress, noting in his description
that these small parrots, a little smaller than
a European blackbird, fed each October on
the ripe seeds from the cypress cones.
Like the passenger pigeon, the
Carolina parakeet is now extinct, Catesby's
Mark Catesby, 1729. The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama islands, volume 1, plate 11. illustration is one earliest records of the
species. The last known living parakeet, a
Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) male called "Inca", died in Cincinnati Zoo
with bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) in 1918, in the same cage as "Martha", the

passenger pigeon.