The habit of the tree is upright with spreading branches. It is large, often 100 feet in height, with a wide, buttressed, tapering trunk. It grows in wet soils, swamps, and overflow lands of the lower Ohio and Mississippi Valley regions and from Illinois southward. The alternate leaves are pinnately compound. Leaflets are linear with entire margins.
Foliage is soft and light green with a feathery or plume-like appearance.
Bark is light brown, furrowed, and scaly. Buds are small and inconspicuous. Twigs near the end of the shoots persist, while those on the lower part of the stem are deciduous and fall with the leaves. Flowers are monoecious. Bald-cypress has been planted in Ohio as an ornamental tree and to a limited degree for timber purposes.