The Bald Cypresses of the Crystal Palace Pond

Several bald cypresses grow directly out of the pond in front of the Palacio de Cristal, their trunks and lower roots permanently submerged, a planting scheme that only works because this particular conifer, unlike almost every other cone-bearing tree, tolerates and even prefers standing water. Bald cypresses develop distinctive above-water root growths called pneumatophores, sometimes called cypress knees, that let the roots breathe oxygen the flooded soil cannot supply, an adaptation evolved in the swamps of the southeastern United States rather than anywhere near Madrid. Planted around 1918, roughly three decades after the glass pavilion itself went up in 1887, the grove has grown into one of the more unusual sights in a park otherwise dominated by conventional planting: full-grown conifers standing calf-deep in a reflecting pool, doubling their own image in the water they grow from. One specimen among the group carries the Community of Madrid's singular tree designation, protecting a planting choice that was, by the standards of 1918 Spanish gardening, a genuine experiment.