Cedar
From Wikinfo
Cedar most correctly refers to those trees belonging to the Genus Cedrus in the coniferous plant Family Pinaceae. These are coniferous trees up to 40-50m tall with scented wood, and evergreen needle-like leaves arranged singly on long shoots, and in dense clusters on short shoots, and barrel-shaped cones 6-12cm long which disintegrate at maturity to release the winged seeds.
There are five taxa of Cedrus, assigned according to taxonomic opinion to two to four different species:
- Deodar cedar Cedrus deodara native to the Himalaya mountains in Asia
- Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani var. libani native to the mountains of Lebanon, western Syria and south-central Turkey
- Turkish cedar Cedrus libani var. stenocoma native to the mountains of southwest Turkey
- Cyprus cedar Cedrus libani var. brevifolia or Cedrus brevifolia native to the mountains of Cyprus
- Atlas cedar Cedrus libani var. atlantica or Cedrus atlantica native to the Atlas mountains of Northern Africa
Cedars are very popular ornamental trees, widely used in horticulture in temperate climates where winter temperatures never fall below about -25�C. They are also grown for their scented wood, most famously used in the construction of King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.
The name cedar has also been mis-applied to many other trees with scented wood, most notably in the genera Cryptomeria, Chamaecyparis, Juniperus and Thuja in the family Cupressaceae, and Cedrela and Toona in the family Meliaceae.
External links
- Arboretum de Villardebelle - cone photos (scroll to bottom of page)
- Arboretum de Villardebelle - Turkey some photos of Cedrus libani var. stenocoma in the wild
- Gymnosperm Database - Cedrus
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Cedar" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
