Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
Eastern Red Cedar is the most widely distributed conifer of the East and grows in all states east of the Great Plains. It pops up all over the place. It is often an early colonizer of old abandoned farm fields. You can spot them along interstate highways in the medians and on side hills abutting the highway. Prior to the availability of plantation grown Christmas trees, wild Eastern Red Cedars were the tree of choice for many folks in the south. They were chosen for their natural conical shape and ready supply.
Eastern Red Cedar trees can grow to 90 feet, but typically they usually reach only 50 feet. They are slow growers, reaching 18 to 24 feet after or 30 years. They are capable of living for 300 years. They have a dense, but relatively small canopy, its width commonly being about two-thirds of the tree's height. They are pyramidal in shape and have reddish-brown bark that is thin and fibrous. It sheds long, vertical strips.
Eastern Red Cedars have fine-textured evergreen needles as leaves. New growth is prickly, maturing into flatter, scale-like needles. In spring they appear as a dark, dull blue-green. Then they turn a dark olive green over the summer, which gives way to a maroon-green or brownish-green color in the fall. Red Cedar foliage is pleasantly aromatic.
Eastern Red Cedar bears small cones as flowers. Typical of all Junipers, each sex is carried on a separate tree. Male cones are yellowish and female ones are reddish purple when they appear in May. On female trees, they yield to berry-like cones that are gray or bluish-green about July. These last all winter until the following March. They are valued by man as flavoring for gin, and by wildlife. They are food for an array of creatures, including deer, small mammals, game birds, and songbirds.
Eastern Red Cedar Choices
Burkii grows 10 to 25 feet tall. It has a narrow to broad pyramidal form. Burkii has gray foliage that turns purplish in winter; Canaertii grows 15 to 20 feet tall with a compact pyramidal form. It opens with age becoming quite picturesque with its dark green foliage and abundant, small cones with a whitish bloom. Elegantissima has golden-tipped branches, bronze fall foliage. Globosa is narrow and columnar with silvery-blue color and moderate height. Pendula is a "weeping" type. Tripartita is dwarf and spreading, rarely over 4 feet tall.
