Western red
cedar is the only low-elevation conifer in the Pacific Northwest with
flat, scale-like leaves. It can grow to be quite tall, up to 230 feet
(70 meters)
Leaves: Western
red cedar has flat, wide scale-like
leaves. They often have a white
butterfly-shaped pattern on the lower surface.
Cones:
The tiny
cones sit on top of the branch and look like tiny rose buds.
Bark:
The reddish-brown
bark is stringy. The base is buttressed, with roots that seem to want
to get
away from the tree before they reach the ground.
Where it grows: Western
red cedar grows in moist areas throughout the Northwest between sea
level and 5000 feet (1500 meters). In some locations, it grows higher,
for example,
around the rim of Crater Lake.
Western red cedar at Hoyt Arboretum
Uses: The
wood
of Western red cedar is light and soft. It has a
pungent, pleasing smell and an attractive red-brown color. Its
resistance to rotting
makes it the wood of choice for many uses, including shingles, decking,
and fencing. Native people widely used it for thousands of years to make lodges,
canoes, totem poles, tools, and utensils. The bark was used to make
rope, baskets, fishing nets, and even clothes.
Names: Thuja
is derived from the Greek
name for a kind of juniper. Plicata
means "pleated," referring to the pattern of its leaves. Other common names:
giant arborvitae (Latin for "tree of life"), canoe
cedar, Pacific red cedar, British Columbia cedar, and
shinglewood.
Note that
western red cedar is not a true cedar. That is, its genus is not Cedrus,
the genus of the true
cedars
from the Middle East and Himalayas.
Some writers indicate this by writing
the
name as "western redcedar."
Buttressed
trunk
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