Picture this a giant tree trunk standing tall in the Jardin des Plantes. This is the Cyprès chauve a bald cypress. It’s not just any tree. It’s a 35-million-year-old relic from a time when the Parisian Basin was a shallow sea.
Imagine two retired men François Fort and Jean Gardes. They were members of a geological club. In 1985 they made an incredible discovery. While exploring a quarry they unearthed this enormous petrified tree stump. The Cyprès chauve was incredibly large. Its diameter was almost 2.5 meters. It was about 1.3 meters high and weighed an estimated 5 tons.
The Museum of Natural History was immediately notified. They identified the Cyprès chauve as a Taxodium distichum. It was a coastal tropical species. This ancient tree stood about 30 to 40 meters tall in its prime. It’s a major scientific find. It offers evidence of the last marine transgression in the Parisian Basin during the Stampian period.
The quarry owner generously donated the Cyprès chauve to the museum. It was carefully moved to the Jardin des Plantes. Today you can see it near the Gallery of Botany and Geology. Sadly time and weather have changed its color. It’s lost its original ochre amber hue. Now it’s a greyish shade.
The Cyprès chauve is more than just a single tree. It represents an entire forest. Nearby the quarry yielded over a hundred fossilized tree stumps. These are from the upper Stampian period about 30 million years ago. They were likely felled by a massive storm. Remarkably the growth rings are still visible. These rings allow scientists to reconstruct past climates.
The quarry closed in the early 1990s. The site is now a nature reserve. It’s managed by the Essonne Nature Environment association. The Cyprès chauve and the other fossils are a priceless part of our natural heritage. They are truly a world-class discovery. They speak volumes about geological history. This incredible find honors the geological club and the world of scientific exploration. The Cyprès chauve stands as a testament to this. It reminds us of the secrets hidden beneath our feet. It’s a window into a distant past a treasure of the Parisian Jardin des Plantes.