Northwestern Van Lines

Thuja plicata
Taxonomy and name

Thuja plicata shoot of mature cones

The Western red cedar is not a true cedar (Cedrus), but belongs to the family Cupressaceae, cypress along. It is known by several names, Pacific red cedar, British Columbia cedar, canoe cedar, giant cedar, red cedar or fair. Plicata, the species name, derived from a Greek word meaning "folded in braids," a reference to the structure of its small leaves. It is one of the two arborvitae (Thuja) native to North America. Thuja is Latin for "tree of life". Coincidentally, the Indians of the West Coast also address the cedar as a "machine for long life.

Description

The Western red cedar is a tall tree, which range from 40-150 feet (12-45 meters) tall and up to 22 feet (7 meters) of trunk diameter. Trees growing in an outdoor exhibit crown that reaches the ground, while trees do very spaced together a crown on top, where light can reach the leaves. Some people can live almost a thousand years or more. Some specimens on the Queen Charlotte Islands are nearly nine hundred years.

Quinault Lake Cedar, aka "Hobbit Tree", is the largest Western red cedar in the world

The Quinault Lake Cedar is the largest known red cedar in the world with a timber volume of 500 cubic meters (17,700 cubic feet). In comparison, the largest known tree, a giant sequoia named General Sherman, has a volume of 1,480 cubic meters (52,300 cubic feet). Located near the northwestern shore of Lake Quinault north of Aberdeen, Washington, about 34 km from the Pacific Ocean, the Quinault Lake Cedar is 55m high with a diameter of 6.04 m (Van Pelt 2002). A red cedar tree 74m in height and 800 years old stood in Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, before he was fired and destroyed by vandals in 1972. [Edit]

The foliage forms flat sprays with scale-leaved in opposite pairs, with successive pairs at 90 to another. The foliage sprays are green above and white with green highlights stomatal bands below. The cones are slender, 1520 mm long and 45 mm wide, 8-12 slender, overlapping scales.

Thujaplicin, a chemical is found in mature trees and serves as sort of a natural fungicide which prevents the wood from rotting. This effect lasts about a century, even after the tree fell. However, thujaplicin not in the old trees and shrubs that do not produce the chemical is often rot at an early stage, which caused some trees to grow a little hollow, rotten trunk.

Distribution and habitat

The Western red cedar is native to the United States from the northwest and south-western Canada, southern Alaska and British Columbia to southern California and northwest through the western Montana. Pollen analysis and carbon-14 dating suggests that the first tree has grown around the lower Fraser Valley around 6600 years ago. Here it thrives and accounted for nearly half of the vegetation in the area 500 years ago. Currently, western red cedar contains about twenty percent of the flora of the region.

Western Red Cedar is one of the most common trees in the Pacific Northwest, and is associated with Douglas-fir and western hemlock in most places where it grows. It is in the range of elevation sea level to 1370m altitude. Besides cultivation in the forests and mountains, western red cedar is also a riparian tree, and grows in many forested swamps, and along its line. The tree is shade, and can reproduce under dense shade. It has a tight, straight grain and few knots.

Uses

Canadian cover Western red cedar National Assembly for Wales

The soft red-brown wood is valued for its distinct appearance, aroma and its great natural resistance to d.