Tree of the Month

Eastern Red Cedar

Description:
From swamps to dry ridges, Eastern Red Cedar is a valuable tree that can survive on barren soils where few other trees are found.  It's the most widely distributed eastern conifer, and native to 37 states.  The species is resistant to extremes of drought, heat, and cold.
Eastern red cedar has many common names:  red cedar, cedar, savin, red juniper, pencil cedar, Virginia juniper, Carolina cedar and cedar apple.

The slender, graceful, columnar form of eastern red cedar is frequently seen, but with age the crown becomes broader and more open.  Ordinarily, this is a tree that grows 40 to 60 feet high, with a short, multi-limb trunk one to two feet in diameter.  Eastern red cedar is often found growing with Hickories, Oaks and Shortleaf Pine.  The berries have been used to flavor gin, due to the aromatic smell.  The tree grows from dry upland soils (especially limestone) to flood plains, swamps, abandoned fields, and fencerows.

Eastern red cedar is often cultivated in several forms, in the northern and eastern states as an ornamental tree, and occasionally in the gardens of western and central Europe.  The largest red cedar measures 242 inches in circumference, is 57 feet tall, and has a 69 foot crown spread.  It's found in Lone Hill Church Cemetery, Coffee County, GA.

Excerpts from an article in Arbor Age Magazine, August 1999
written by Jim Lee, Director of the Ohio Forestry Association.  
Artwork by Bruce Lyndon Cunningham.

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