Wikipedia states: It is a large tree, reaching 25–40 m (rarely to 44 m) tall and a trunk diameter of 2–3 m, rarely to 5 m. The bark is gray-brown to red-brown, shallowly vertically fissured, with a stringy texture. The leaves are borne on deciduous branchlets that are spirally arranged on the stem but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, 1-2 cm long and 1-2 mm broad; unlike most other species in the family Cupressaceae, it is deciduous, losing the leaves in the winter months, hence the name 'bald'. It is monoecious. Male and female strobili mature in about 12 months; they are produced from buds formed in the late fall, with pollination in early winter. The seed cones are green maturing gray-brown, globular, 2-3.5 cm in diameter. They have from 20–30 spirally arranged four-sided scales, each bearing one or two (rarely three) triangular seeds. The number of seeds per cone ranges from 20–40. The cones disintegrate when mature to release the large seeds. The seeds are 5-10 mm long, the largest of any species in the cypress family, and are produced every year but with heavy crops every three to five years. The seedlings have 3–9 (most often 6) cotyledons. The main trunks are surrounded by cypress knees . The largest known individual specimen is "The Senator", near Longwood, Florida: it is 35 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of 344 cm and an estimated volume of 119.4 m³. The tallest known, near Williamsburg, Virginia, is 44 m tall, and the stoutest known, on Cat Island, Louisiana, has 521 cm diameter.

A deciduous conifer with bright yellow-green needles in spring, later sage green, brown in fall; of narrow, columnar habit, with a straight trunk; red-brown bark; likes rich, deep loam and moist acid soil, and in the wild grows mainly in swamps, but will adapt to dry soils; produces interesting "knees" when grown in near water; Dirr says there is something "hauntingly beautiful" about a grove of Bald Cypress; native from Delaware to Florida and into the U.S. Midwest