If Trees Could Sing - Fisk Jubilee Singers & the Bald Cypress
Fisk Jubilee Singers talk about the bald cypress. © Used by permission of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Stories in Tennessee

If Trees Could Sing: The Fisk Jubilee Singers

The Fisk Jubilee Singers talk about the benefits of trees like bald cypress.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers have been a tradition at Fisk University in Nashville since 1871. The choral group is led by its musical director Dr. Paul Kwami and is made up of Fisk students who sing historic Negro spiritual songs in a cappella (unaccompanied) style. The group tours regularly across the nation. 

More music artists talk about trees . . . 

Fisk Jubilee Singers Members of the celebrated Fisk Jubilee Singers, with music director Dr. Paul Kwami, talk about the bald cypress.

Bald Cypress Facts

  • Scientific name: Taxodium distichum
  • Range: mostly coastal and river swamps, from the Mid-Atlantic states south to Florida and the Gulf Coast and along the Mississippi River valley
  • Height: up to 165 feet tall
  • Fruit: round 1" diameter cones, green at first then turning wrinkled and brown
  • Fall colors: needles turn orange-brown in fall
  • Semi-Evergreen: this tree loses its needles in winter, making it a deciduous conifer

You Can Take Care of Trees Like the Bald Cypress

  • Plant in late fall or winter when the tree is dormant, unless the ground is frozen. 
  • Allow plenty of room for the tree to mature and grow.
  • Water it regularly in its first three years.
  • Spread mulch around the base of the tree. 

Mighty Cool Tree Fact

Did you know... trees are some of the world's oldest living things? Bald cypresses can live more than 1,000 years. And bristlecone pines can live more than 5,000!

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