Trees to 20(--28) m; trunk to 0.8(--1.5) m diam. Bark dark brownish red, less than 3 cm thick, irregularly furrowed and ridged. Branchlet sprays fan-shaped. Leaves of branchlets to 2 mm, apex acute to acuminate, bases of facial leaves often overlapped by apices of subtending facial leaves; glands usually present, circular. Pollen cones 2--4 mm, dark brown; pollen sacs yellow. Seed cones maturing and opening the first year, 4--9 mm broad, glaucous, bluish purple to reddish brown, not notably resinous; scales 5--7. Seeds 1--2 per scale, 2--3 mm, wing narrower than body.

Bogs and swamps of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts (primarily Coastal Plain); 0--500 m; Ala., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Maine, Md., Mass., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., S.C., Va.

A. J. Rehder (1949) listed, with bibliographic citations, 30 published varieties and forms best considered as cultivars.

Slender tree to 25 m; ultimate branchlets ca 1 mm wide; lvs imbricate, ovate, 2-4 mm, pointed, usually glandular, persisting and enlarging on the older branches; cones 6-8 mm, the scales ca 6, pointed in the center. Swamps and bogs, chiefly on the coastal plain; s. Me. and c. N.H. to Fla. and Miss.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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