Western redcedar

Leaves

Form

• Scale-like leaves have inconspicuous resin glands on outer surface

Length

• Scale-like leaves 1–2 mm
• Lance-shaped leaves 4–5 mm

Colour

• Shiny yellowish-green

Twigs

Form

• Shoot complex elongated, tapering, often fern-like and pendulous

Colour

• Upper surface yellowish-green
• Lower surface often whitened

Seed cones (mature)

Form

• Ovoid
• 8–10 scales, often with a small, weak, sharp point near the tip

Length

• 12–18 mm

Timing

• Ripen in late summer
• Shed during the winter

Bark

Form

• Thin, shiny when young
• Shredded, with age forming narrow flat ridges

Colour

• Reddish-brown

Wood

Texture

• Very light, soft, relatively weak
  
• Characteristic odour
• Heartwood resistant to decay
• Sapwood less resistant to decay

Colour

• Heartwood pinkish or reddish-brown to deep brown
• Sapwood yellowish-white

Morphology

• Straight-grained

Uses

• Shakes and shingles, poles, posts
• Boatbuilding, greenhouse construction
• Outdoor patios, exterior siding
• Doors, window sashes, millwork, interior finishing

Size

Height

• To 60 m

Diameter

• To 250 cm

Maximum age

• 800 years

Tree form

Open-grown

Trunk

• Often obscured by dense live foliage

Crown

• At altitudes above 1500 m, a small tree or shrub

Forest-grown

Trunk

• Tapering rapidly, flaring and buttressed at the base

Crown

• Long, symmetrical, narrowly conical, becoming irregular with age
• Principal branches spreading, drooping, upturned at the ends
• An old tree may have one or more dead tops

Root system

• Shallow, wide-spreading, strong

Habitat

Site

• From sea level to 2000 m in forests of the coast and wetter parts of interior British Columbia
• Grows best on moist alluvial sites
• Also found on rich dry soils and in sphagnum bogs

Associated species

• Seldom occurs in pure stands
• Usually mixed with species such as Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, western hemlock, black cottonwood, red alder
• At higher elevations, with Engelmann spruce and western larch

Range

A western species