Note: You may click on thumbnail images to view larger images. To return to thumbnail/text gallery, click anywhere on a large photograph. Here is why the area is called Big Cypress. About 75 percent is covered with Cypress tree stands called Cypress domes. In between most domes are grassy marshes that are often covered with small Cypress trees from a few inches to about six feet high. The ground is always wet in these areas so all plants that grow here can survive in water year around. Every Cypress tree is host to at least one and often several symbiotic air plants that, like many orchids, get their nutrients and moisture entirely form the air.