Giant cypress trees draped with Spanish moss, Florida, circa 1940

About this postcard

Tall bald cypress trees rise from still, reflective water, their trunks and branches hung with long veils of Spanish moss, with flowering shrubs along the near bank and a pale sunset sky behind. The caption calls them "giant cypress trees, monarchs of Florida's forests in the sunshine state." Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) is the signature tree of Florida's swamps and hammocks, and the hanging gray strands are Spanish moss, an epiphyte rather than a parasite. Scenes like this were staples of Florida tourist cards from the 1930s through the 1950s.