John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant
Society’s
Wildflower Spot – December 2008
EASTERN RED CEDAR
Juniperus virginiana
There is much to like about our
native red cedar which provides a home for many
songbirds. The tree is evergreen, requires full sun,
and is tolerant of most soils, especially those dry and
infertile. The heartwood is highly aromatic, light,
strong, durable, and widely used for cedar chests,
cabinets, fuel, and fence posts. The dry outer bark,
when stripped and rubbed between the hands, provides
excellent tinder. A volatile oil derived from juniper
leaves is used in perfumes and a flavoring may be
derived from the berries.
Eastern red cedar can grow to 60 feet
tall, retaining an attractive columnar-pyramidal form.
The leaves are of two types -- sharp, spreading and
needle-like on young plants up to 3 years old and as
scattered shoots on adult trees. The adult leaves are
small, scalelike, overlapping and carry a heavy coating,
permitting survival during cold winters and hot dry
summers.
Important winter food for birds and
small mammals are the bluish waxy seed cones, berry-like
with fleshy scales. Inside the cones are a few wingless
seeds, which pass through digestive tracts undamaged and
are often dropped along fences. The fruits are eaten by
over 50 species of birds, including cedar waxwings,
bluebirds, bobwhite, grouse and pheasant. The great
purple and olive hairstreak butterflies lay their eggs
on red cedar which furnishes food for the larva.
European settlers planted cedars on
either side of their front doors as a good luck charm –
possibly because they are so long-lived. American
Indians chewed the fruit for canker sores, and used
fruit tea for colds and coughs. Leaf smoke or steam was
inhaled for colds, bronchitis and rheumatism, and for
purification rituals.
Ranging from southwest Maine to
southern Minnesota, and southwest to Georgia and Texas,
red cedar grows naturally in almost every county in
Virginia. Juniper seedlings appear frequently in
meadows and gardens, again from bird distribution.
Cedar trees without the “berries” in the fall and winter
are probably the male of the species, which carry
golden-brown remnants of their pollen-bearing cones.
By Helen Hamilton, president of the John Clayton
Chapter, VNPS
Photo:
Eastern Red Celar
(Juniperus virginiana); taken by
Phillip Merritt
