Western redcedar

Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

Arizona Mountains forests

Atlantic coastal pine barrens

Blue Mountains forests

Central-Southern Cascades Forests

Chilean Matorral

Colorado Rockies forests

Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland

Eastern Cascades forests

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Soil pH

Acid / Neutral

Acid is below pH 6.0, neutral 6.0 to 8.0, alkaline above 8.0.

Spacing

12 ft

Habit

Large, conical evergreen conifer with arching branches, drooping branchlets and a trunk that is often buttressed at the base. NC State Extension gives 50 to 70 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide in a garden. Forest trees are far bigger: FEIS gives 70 to 100 feet at maturity, sometimes 130 feet, and old-growth trees west of the Cascades to 200 feet, and Flora of North America gives trees to 164 feet, rarely 246 feet, with trunks to 6.6 feet across. The foliage is flat, fan-like sprays of tiny scale leaves, glossy green above with white markings shaped like a butterfly beneath, and the fibrous, reddish to grayish brown bark tears off in long strips. FEIS and Silvics of North America say the taproot is poorly defined or absent but the fine roots form a dense network, many of them lying in the forest-floor duff where it is thick, and FEIS and Plants For A Future that it keeps its lower branches unless crowded or shaded out.

Care tips

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Keep it moist and out of drying winds. NC State Extension says it does not tolerate drought or dry winds, and tags it for rain gardens, pond margins and stream banks.

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Give it a cool climate. NC State says it will suffer in hot, humid climates, and in North Carolina it suggests trying it only in the mountains.

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Give young plants some shade: Silvics of North America says the exposed tops of young trees often sunburn and that seedlings do best in partial shade.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in spring, when Silvics of North America says container-grown stock does best inland, in consistently moist soil high in organic matter, in full sun, partial shade or dappled light. NC State Extension lists acid to neutral soil that drains well but may be wet at times, and tags it for rain gardens, pond margins and stream banks; Silvics says it tolerates stagnant winter water tables close to the surface and grows on both acid and alkaline soils, including shallow soil over chalk in England. NC State says it will suffer in hot, humid climates but may grow in the North Carolina mountains. Give it room: NC State lists 12 to 24 feet and 24 to 60 feet as the space to allow.

Transplanting

Move it young. FEIS and Silvics of North America describe a dense network of fine roots with a poorly defined taproot or none, and Silvics says container-grown seedlings establish as well as or better than bare-root stock; Plants For A Future adds that it is shallow-rooted and not suited to light, sandy soils.

Early growth

Water through dry spells. NC State Extension says it does not tolerate drought or dry winds, and Silvics of North America notes that its leaves are not protected from water loss by cutin and wax. Protect young trees where deer and elk are common: Silvics says seedlings and saplings are often severely browsed by deer, elk and rodents, and calls browsing perhaps the most important problem in establishing new stands.

Maturity

NC State Extension lists bagworms, some root rots and arborvitae leafminer. Silvics of North America says it suffers little insect damage and is less susceptible to disease than most of its associates, but builds up more decay in living trees than any other major British Columbia conifer, so hollow old trees are common inland; Plants For A Future, by contrast, calls it notably susceptible to honey fungus. Silvics adds that it is often windthrown on wet sites but as windfirm as Douglas fir on dry ones, that salt spray damages it more than Sitka spruce, and that a leaf blight (Didymascella thujina) attacks nursery seedlings in their second and third years. FEIS says its thin bark, shallow roots, low, dense branches and highly flammable foliage make it susceptible to fire damage, and NC State rates its fire risk as high flammability.

Propagation

NC State Extension recommends seed or stem cuttings. FEIS and Silvics of North America say the seed germinates well without stratification and stays viable for at least 7 years stored dry at -0°F, and Silvics says disturbed mineral soil is a major requirement for seedlings in the wild. Silvics adds that stem cuttings root easily even untreated, and that a dip in rooting hormone (indolebutyric acid) improves rooting. In the forest it also spreads by layering and from fallen branches that take root.

Pollination

Wind-pollinated

Wind-pollinated, with seed cones and pollen cones on different branches of the same tree: Silvics of North America says the reddish pollen cones grow on the lower branches and the green seed cones nearer the top and farther from the trunk. Pollination comes in March and April near the southern coast and in May and June in Alaska and inland; open-grown trees bear cones from about 10 years old, usually every other year. FEIS says heavy seed crops are common and poor ones rare. Nothing for a gardener to manage.

Plants don't grow alone

Foliage forage

Mammal

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Silvics of North America says the leaves are a major winter food for big game in the northern Rocky Mountains, and FEIS reports them making up 5 percent of the winter diet of elk sampled in Idaho. FEIS names black-tailed deer, a deer of the same genus (Odocoileus), browsing seedlings and saplings all year in British Columbia, and Roosevelt elk; neither has an entry in this catalog. In the inland range of northern Idaho, western Montana and southeastern British Columbia, white-tailed deer are a likely browser.

Shelter / habitat

Bird

Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

FEIS records chestnut-backed chickadees using western redcedar as nest trees, and NC State Extension lists chickadees among the birds it shelters. The chestnut-backed chickadee has no entry in this catalog; the black-capped chickadee, of the same genus (Poecile) and found through much of the inland western redcedar range, is a likely user.

Shelter / habitat

Bird

Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

FEIS records hairy woodpeckers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers nesting in western redcedar, and NC State Extension lists woodpeckers among the birds it shelters. Neither of those species has an entry in this catalog; the downy woodpecker, a smaller relative of the hairy woodpecker in the same genus (Dryobates) and found across the western redcedar range, is a likely user of the same trees. FEIS adds that bears, raccoons and skunks den in its cavities, and that tree swallows and Vaux swifts nest in them.

For people

Not eaten by humans

Not a food plant. Its fame is its wood, soft but extremely durable: Flora of North America, FEIS and NC State Extension record it for shakes, shingles, siding, fences, decks, boats and poles. Flora of North America notes that Northwest Coast peoples built lodges, totem poles and seagoing canoes from it, and NC State that the roots and strips of bark were made into rope, baskets, mats and clothing. Silvics of North America says cedar leaf oil goes into perfumes, insecticides and medicinal preparations. Plants For A Future lists the inner bark and pitch as edible, but no authoritative source here confirms that and no toxicity authority covers the species, so this record does not treat any part as food.

Native range

Native across 6 US states + 2 CA provinces.

Native ecoregions

Naturally belongs in 17 ecoregions - its native range crosses a state or province each one spans (not necessarily this exact habitat).

Blue Mountains forests

California coastal sage and chaparral

Canadian Aspen forests and parklands

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Central-Southern Cascades Forests

Eastern Cascades forests

Klamath-Siskiyou forests

Mojave desert

North Cascades conifer forests

Northern California coastal forests

Also called Oregon maple, this is the big maple of the Pacific coast, native from British Columbia south to California: a broad, fast-growing shade tree with the largest leaves of any maple, deeply five-lobed and commonly 8 to 12 inches across, turning yellow in fall. It belongs to mild, wet-winter, cool-summer climates. In the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest its trunks and limbs carry heavy coats of moss, lichens and licorice fern. Away from that climate it is a poor bet: NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden rate it for USDA zones 6 and 7 only and say it does not do well in hot, humid summers.

Climate notes

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NC State Extension and the Missouri Botanical Garden both list Thuja plicata for USDA hardiness zones 5 to 7 (5a-7b), the range used here. Plants For A Future gives a wider 5 to 8, and the University of Florida IFAS fact sheets for the cultivars 'Canadian Gold' and 'Fastigiata' give 6a to 8a. The Missouri Botanical Garden says it thrives where summers are cool and may struggle in St. Louis. Silvics of North America records absolute minimum temperatures of -22 to 14°F for coastal populations in British Columbia and -53 to 7°F for interior ones, and says inland trees are the more frost tolerant, but that the species is not resistant to frost and is sometimes damaged by freezes in late spring or early autumn.

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The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: western North America, in Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana. WCVP records it as introduced in Great Britain, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal. NC State Extension says it is naturalized in Britain and has been introduced to the eastern United States and the higher elevations of Hawaii, which is why the FEIS state list includes Hawaii; Flora of North America adds that it is managed for timber in Europe and New Zealand.

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Flora of North America describes a coastal segment from southeastern Alaska to northwestern California, between latitudes 56° 30′ and 40° 30′ N, and a Rocky Mountain segment from British Columbia to Idaho and Montana, between 54° 30′ and 45° 50′ N. Silvics of North America says the two are essentially isolated, that growth is best near the middle of the range on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, and that it grows from sea level to 7,513 feet at Crater Lake in Oregon. Flora of North America places it commonly on moist sites in mixed conifer forest, usually not in pure stands, from sea level to 4,921 feet, rarely 6,562 feet. The Wildflower Center state and province list used in this record matches WCVP.

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Silvics records yearly rainfall on the coast from under 35 inches to over 22 feet, mostly as winter rain, and 2.3 to 4.1 feet inland, where about a third falls as winter snow. It says that where rainfall is enough, low temperature seems to set the limits of the range: the northern limit in southeastern Alaska lies between mean summer temperatures of about 52 to 54°F, and the growing season runs from at least 120 frost-free days on the coast to as few as 75 in parts of the interior.

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Sources differ on salt and on honey fungus. Plants For A Future says the tree tolerates salt winds but not severe maritime exposure, while Silvics says salt spray damages it more than Sitka spruce; this record follows Silvics and does not recommend it for exposed seaside sites. Plants For A Future calls it notably susceptible to honey fungus, while Silvics says it is less susceptible to disease than most of its associates and may be a suitable replacement on coastal Douglas fir and western hemlock sites whose soil carries root rots including Armillaria, though Silvics also lists Armillaria among the root rots that attack it; both views are reported here. Plants For A Future gives acid to alkaline soil and NC State acid to neutral, so the soil pH here is acid to neutral.

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Acer macrophyllum

Bigleaf maple

The only native oak of British Columbia and Washington and the principal oak of Oregon - a slow-growing, deeply tap-rooted deciduous tree with deeply lobed, rounded-lobe glossy leaves and a broad, rugged, rounded crown. It is the keystone of the Pacific Northwest oak savanna, providing acorns and cover for deer, small mammals, and birds. Notably drought-adapted: it wants dry summer soil and resents irrigation.

The western counterpart of eastern flowering dogwood - a small deciduous tree of the Pacific coast with horizontal, tiered branching and a rounded-to-conical crown. Its showy spring "flowers" are actually a tight central cluster of tiny purple-green true flowers ringed by six large white petal-like bracts (eastern flowering dogwood has four). Elliptic dark green leaves color yellow to orange to red in fall, and the 1/3-inch fruits ripen to showy bright red or orange that feed songbirds, squirrels, and deer.

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Rocky Mountain juniper

Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) is the western counterpart to eastern redcedar, and the two are confused constantly - with good reason, because where their ranges meet across the Great Plains they hybridise freely and intermediate trees are genuinely hard to name. Start with the caveat: Missouri Botanical Garden has no species-level page for it at all, only cultivar entries, and the species is the wrong plant for a hot humid climate. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is blunt about it - drought and salt spray are fine, high humidity and high night temperatures are not - so this is a plant for the dry interior west and the plains, not the Southeast. What it offers there is unusual. It is a narrow, slow, drought-hard tree of dry rocky foothills, 30 to 50 feet on a good site and often far less, with shredding red-brown bark, blue-grey scale foliage, and high tolerance of caliche and limestone - the mirror image of the acid-soil hollies in this batch. It is dioecious like them, so the waxy blue-black cones appear only on female trees with a male nearby, and those cones are cones rather than fruit, taking about 18 months to ripen. It also lives an extraordinarily long time: the Jardine Juniper in Utah is over 1,500 years old and a New Mexico specimen counted 1,888 rings. The hard restriction is cedar-apple rust, for which it is an alternate host - do not plant it near an orchard.

Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) is the narrowest conifer in western North America and, for most gardens, the wrong tree. It is a timberline species: the US Forest Service silvical account puts its climate at a mean July temperature of 45 to 60°F, with more than 24 inches of precipitation of which much falls as snow, on ground that is frozen or under snow for a large part of the year. Bring it down the mountain into a hot summer, a humid one, or a polluted one and it sulks, thins and dies, and it does so slowly enough that people keep watering it. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center calls it a spire-like evergreen of 30 to 50 feet with stiff horizontal limbs branched to the ground, and that spire is the whole ornamental argument - a crown so narrow it can be a fifth as wide as it is tall, which is a snow-shedding adaptation rather than a nursery selection. At and above treeline it stops being a tree at all and grows as krummholz, low sprawling mats scoured by wind, and reproduces by LAYERING: a branch pressed into the ground roots and becomes a new stem, so a single tree can leave behind a ring of clones that mountaineers call an atoll. Two honest problems follow it down into cultivation. It is slow and, for a conifer, short-lived and structurally weak - thin bark, persistent dead branches, easily windthrown - and its pest list is serious: balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae), introduced from Europe and the most destructive insect on this species in the Cascades, and the western balsam bark beetle (Dryocoetes confusus), which together with Armillaria root rot drives the mortality complex that has killed subalpine fir across large areas of the Rockies. Like every true fir it carries its cones UPRIGHT on the upper branches, dark purple ripening brown, and those cones never fall whole - they shatter on the tree and leave a bare central spike standing on the branch, which is the single quickest way to tell an Abies from a Picea at a glance.

A Pacific Northwest native small maple of understory + woodland-edge habitats producing rounded palmate leaves with brilliant red-orange fall color + a delicate multi-stemmed shrubby-to-small-tree habit. Native to the Cascade + Coast Range forests; thrives in cool moist Pacific Northwest conditions where eastern maples struggle. Among the most graceful native ornamental small trees for shaded gardens.