Common Name: Eastern red cedar
Family: Cupressaceae
Photo: Long Island, NY
Photo: Voluntown, CT
Plant is Native to: East and central North America.
Plant Height at maturity: 40 to 50' high, 8 to 20' spread.
Plant Habit and Form: Dense, pyramidal shape when young, to slightly pendulous in old age. Quite varied in appearance.
Foliage: Medium green, to sage green to blue-green in summer; becomes bronze to yellow-brown in winter. Leaves are scale-like or awl-like, about 1/16" long, longer on older branchlets, about 1/12" long. Arranged in 4 ranks, closely pressed and overlapping. Concave and glaucous above, green and convex below. Cedar scent when bruised.
Photo: Long Island, NY
Bark: Grayish to reddish brown, exfoliates in long strips.
Photo: Voluntown, CT
Flower: Usually dioecious, may have monoecious flowers on occasion. Staminate yellow, pistillate green.
Fruit/Seed: Waxy, blue fruits with an almost frosted appearance. Globular or ovoid cones, 1/4" across. Brownish violet, ripen in the first year. 1 to 2 small ovoid seeds, shining brown, with blunt-angular apex.
Photos: Long Island, NY
Growing Requirements: Transplants easily, and tolerates adverse conditions and gravelly soils. Prefers a sunny, airy location. Tolerant of shade, but only in youth. Tolerates high or low pH.
Problems and Drawbacks: Male tree turn an unpleasant yellow-brown color in winter. Susceptible to cedar apple rust and bagworms.
Special Uses: Good specimen plant, in groupings or as a screening. Good windbreak or hedge.
ID Tips/Remarks: Strong cedar scent when leaves are bruised, like a cedar chest or closet. Female has a pretty, almost frosty blue-green color when in cone, while males are more yellow-brown in winter.
Bibliography:
Dirr, Michael A. Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, 1998 Stipes Publishing, Champaigne, IL
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/j/junvir/junvir1.html
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