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Cedar Tree
Description: The cedar is a tree that grows 150 feet to 175 feet high, and five to eight feet in
diameter (measuring a straight line through the widest part of the trunk). It has flat feathery
fronds that are made out of tiny leaves that overlap like tiny fish scales or roof shingles. The
cedar tree has a very strong smell. It has two kinds of cones: (1) very small seed cones that are
egg-shaped, only 1 centimeter long and have just a few pairs of scales, and (2) and pollen
cones are small and reddish.
Classification: Cedar trees are conifers. “Conifer” means that they have cones and that they do
not have broad flat leaves that fall off in the winter. The scientific name of the cedar tree is Thuja
picata Donn.
Habitat: Cedar trees grow in Northwest temperate forests. “Temperate” means mild weather,
not too cold or hot.
Stages of Life Cycle:
Cedar trees grow from seeds. They need warmth, moisture and air to grow. The seed sprouts a
root that is pulled down by gravity. Seedlings raise two oval seed leaves, then a shoot with
simple narrow needles projecting all around. Adult feathery fronds grow on side shoots when
the tree is two years old. In the same way as broad leaf plants, a cedar tree uses up the food
that was in the seed and starts making its own food inside its scale-like leaves using sunlight,
carbon dioxide (air breathed out by animals), and water it gets from the soil through its roots. In
spring, adult trees grow small, oval, reddish male flower groups near the base of new shoots.
The male flower cones turn yellow with pollen.Tiny female flowers that look like little green or
purple cones grow on very short stalks on outer branches. Pollen is spread from the male cones
to the female cones by the wind. The female cones turn brown in autumn and then open from
tight ovals into tiny cones with scales. Tiny brown oval seeds, each with a narrow pale brown
wing on either side, escape and are spread by the wind.
Human Resources: Native Americans used cedar trees to make clothing, baskets, artwork,
tools, rope, bentwood boxes, canoes and houses. Today we still use cedar as lumber for
houses, as good-smelling potporri, and wood chips to cover garden beds.
Interesting Facts: Many guitar soundboards are made out of Western Red Cedar. The oil
found in cedar is a natural insect repellant.