1	Leaves mostly vertically ascending, appressed and overlapping, spirally arranged; branchlets ascending from twigs, secundly erect; bark 1–2.5 cm thick, furrowed, dark- brown, not exfoliating; larger knees short, rarely > 4 dm tall, with thick, compact bark on top; trees of isolated depressions, natural lakes, wet savannas, pocosins, other wet peaty habitats, and, less commonly, blackwater swamps	Taxodium ascendens Fig. 26
–	Leaves pendent to horizontally spreading to laterally divergent, spirally arranged but generally appearing distichous (“featherlike”); branchlets not ascending from twigs; bark < 1 cm thick, exfoliating in shreddy, orange-brown strips; larger knees often tall, frequently > 4 dm tall, with thin, shreddy bark on top; trees of blackwater swamps, brownwater swamps, natural lakes, and millponds; usually in riverine situations	Taxodium distichum Fig. 27

Key adapted from Watson (1993), Weakley (2012), and Thornhill et al. (2014).

Note: “In the following key, leaf and branchlet characters of T. ascendens refer to mature trees; foliage of juvenile trees often mimics that of T. distichum. Leaf and branchlet characters of T. distichum refer to both mature and juvenile trees; however, in the crowns of mature T. distichum, leaf and branchlet characters sometimes mimic those of T. ascendens. For these reasons, accurate identification of the two species often requires observation of other, non-foliage features, including the stature of the “knees”, the thickness and texture of the bark, and the habitat in which the trees grow” (Thornhill et al. 2014).