Eastern red cedar is rare in the West.

One of the less common and certainly least familiar of junipers happens to be the most culturally and environmental significant juniper in North America, even though it is not even known as a juniper. Juniperus virginiana is instead known as the Eastern red cedar. It has a vast range, including every state east of Colorado, as well as Quebec, Ontario and even Oregon to the west. In some areas within and near the natural range, fire suppression has allowed Eastern red cedar to become invasive.

Mature trees are mostly less than fifty feet tall, but are the biggest evergreen trees in Kansas nonetheless. The largest Eastern red cedars can get almost ninety feet tall. Most are well branched from top to bottom unless pruned for clearance. The fibrous bark is ruddy brown, but not often seed from the outside.

Foliage and fruit are rather variable. The prickly juvenile leaves of young plants and interior stems of mature plants can be rather annoying. The scale-like adult leaves are more typical of junipers. Male trees produce pollen that can be a significant allergen. Female trees produce sporadic, small berries in blue or purplish black, that are quite popular with certain birds through winter.

Prior to the discovery of the incense cedar in the west, Eastern red cedar was the common aromatic cedar that was used to make pencils and to laminate cedar chests and closets to protect woolens and natural fibers from moths. Since it is so repellent to insects and decay, it is commonly used as fence posts. Native American Indians also used posts of Eastern red cedar, painted red with blood of the animals they hunted, to mark the boundaries of their hunting ranges. The name of Baton Rouge, which means ‘red stick’, was actually derived from such marking posts.

During the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, and before becoming known as a potentially invasive species, Eastern red cedar was promoted by the Prairie States Forest Project as a resilient wind break. They tolerate drought, harsh exposure and inferior soil. They can be planted close together to fill out and gain height more efficiently. More information about Eastern red cedar can be found where I got much of this information, at the Great Plains Nature Center.

10 thoughts on “Eastern Red Cedar”

    1. Thank you SO much for the American Holly! They arrived shortly before I returned. I will post pictures of them next Saturday. I am accumulating quite a collection of Eastern North American species! The variegated ginger that I brought back from the Los Angeles region is supposed to bloom like the butterfly ginger that you sent to me earlier, but I doubt that it is. I know it will be pretty regardless.
      Anyway, I have been enjoying these Eastern red cedars since I brought them back from Oklahoma, although I can not explain why. Perhaps I enjoy them like the beautyberry and American holly, because they are from another part of North America.

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      1. Good morning, Tony, you are welcome. I am happy that you are enjoying them and hope they grow well for you.

        I dug up a bunch of little evergreen trees from our neighborhood entrance area several years ago, in expectation that at least some of them might be Eastern hemlock- which I wanted. Turns out, they were all ERC instead. I hadn’t learned to recognize the juvenile form, which is so spiky! Looks very different from the mature foliage. I have a few volunteer ERC growing in my wooded area, now, which I have been debating whether to leave or cut. I’m leaving the hollies but may need to edit all but one or two of the cedars because of their size and what they are growing near. They remind me of childhood Christmas trees. Trees are always fascinating to watch grow! Your variegated Hedychium is beautiful. Good luck with it!

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      2. There are no native hollies here, but English holly is naturalized in some situations. I dislike removing it because I am so fond of it. I canned a few for my own garden, but otherwise dispose of all those that I remove. We do not use them within the landscapes. American holly has appealed to me as a less refined option to English holly, which is likely more conducive to pruning. English holly gets so knobby, and the vigorous growth that develops after major pruning is so dense and prickly! I do not have a plan for the American holly yet, but will likely install them as a hedge to obscure the suspension of a cabin on stilts. (I do not like seeing under buildings on the steep hillsides here.) Such a hedge only needs to get about six feet tall (because the driveway is even lower than where the hedge will go.), but can get twice as tall if it wants to. I think that I can keep it that low. If they exhibit significant genetic variability, I may take cuttings of a favorite specimen for other hedges. (Technically, such cloned specimens would still be from the wild, rather than an improved cultivar.)

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      3. Well, I hope you enjoy working with them. We have lots of ‘mystery’ holly seedlings here with beautiful leaves, and I assume they are hybrids based on I. chinensis or I. cornuta because I. aquifolium is a bit more difficult in our climate. It is hard to discard such beautiful little plants even knowing how big and prickly they become as they mature. It is interesting that there is no native holly in your area. Too arid for too much of the year, perhaps? I will put up some photos on FG to show you what holly can look like as it ages- and is pruned. The I. opaca can do just as you described after large branches are pruned away. And, it is likely to develop multiple leaders, so will need tending as it grows. the opaca grows into a tree within 10-12 years, and the females are stunning when covered in berries. I was admiring one on Saturday in my neighbor’s yard that has just colored up. But yes, the seedlings I sent to you are very, very wild- not improved cultivars at all 😉

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      4. Wild is what I want. As they grow, I ‘might’ select a female to grow copies of, but probably will not. The five Arizona cypress are also wild, and I like them like that. I would get a cultivar for the landscape, for for their particular application, I wanted something that was compatible with the forest. I suppose that I could have gotten a green cultivar, which would have been as compatible, but I wanted to work with the genetically variable seedlings. They have worked out splendidly, and I doubt that anyone will notice that they are not genetically identical.

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      5. Sounds like great fun!! Have you ever heard of Mahonia japonica, or Berberis japonica? I was just shown today that the shrubs I’ve been growing for years, believing they were the N. A. native from the West Coast, are actually a Chinese species. An alternate name, or perhaps related species, is B. bealie. All these years I thought I had the native, and it was actually an Asian Mahonia/Berberis….. I had never heard of M. japonica, but there is an excellent article on Treesandshrubsonline.org which explains the history of this species, back to Robert Fortune in the mid-19th century.

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      6. Berberis japonica is an uncommon species here, although we grow a few at work. It looks nothing like the other Mahonia. I always knew that it is Asian because of the name, but I also think of it as a species that is popular in the Pacific Northwest. (It is more popular there than here, but is not all that common there either.)

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