Half of Louisiana is timbered with an abundance of varied and beautiful trees, but no action was taken to designate a state tree until 1963 when the bald cypress was made the official tree of Louisiana. The cypress grows in many areas of the state, particularly the swampy areas.
Its shape depends greatly on the amount and duration of flooding in the area, and varies from columnar to conical or bottle shaped. The bark is reddish-brown, fibrous, thin, and divided into small, flat ridges and shallow furrows. Leaves of the cypress tree spread in flat planes in a feathery pattern on its branchlets.