As gardeners, we all agree that mulching is a good idea. Mulch helps beautify our flower beds, it moderates soil temperature by providing warmth to plant roots in the winter and shade in the summer; it helps conserve soil mositure, inhibits weed growth, and cuts down on soil erosion.
Over the years, cypress mulch has been touted as being more color retentive, durable, and pest-repellent than its competitors. Despite these claims of superiority by the Association of Southern Cypress Producers, studies suggest its sterling reputation may be unwarranted. In reality, cypress differs little in its performance from other natural landscape mulches.
Its explosive popularity is due in part to aggressive advertising and marketing techniques. Many megastores offer cypress mulch at or below cost to lure shoppers into their stores.
The Alachua County Extension Service, in a six-month study on alternative mulches, found no significant difference in the effectiveness of cypress compared to pine bark, wood chips or pine straw.
Its affordability may be a farce too. By choosing cypress, we are unwittingly contributing to the demise of this majestic native tree and also to the Everglades. Every bag of cypress mulch consumed sounds a death knell for our vanishing wetlands.
Why should we care about this issue? Because wetlands, and the cypress domes that exist in them, help control floods, purify our water and provide habitat and breeding grounds for fish, birds and other wildlife. When ecosystems are healthy, humankind is healthy.
Cypresses are deciduous, slow-growing conifers in the Taxodiaceae, or Baldcypress, family. Two species-- Taxodium distichum var. distichum, aka baldcypress, and Taxodium ascendens, commonly called pond cypress-- are native to Florida. http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/Extension/pubtxt...
They are wetland denizens, and they have the distinction of being the largest trees east of the Rockies and the most flood-tolerant species in Florida. Like their cousins, the famous California redwoods, they are remarkably long-lived.
Both Taxodium species are characterized by buttressed trunks and knobby projections from the roots called "knees." Scientists postulate these protrusions may help support the tree or may be utilized in oxygen uptake. http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/Extension/pubtxt...
Demand for cypress as mulch is a relatively new phenomenon. In the early part of the 20th century, old-growth cypress was exclusively cut for timber. Because of its durability and resistance to water, it was prized for railroad ties, roof shingles and cisterns.
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