Cedar Tree Identification: True Cedars, Junipers, Thuja

Cedar tree identification starts with a surprise: most trees called cedar in North America are not true cedars. Wikipedia's cedar wood article notes the name is applied to many unrelated plants with aromatic wood, and some botanical authorities consider only the Old World genus Cedrus to be true cedars.

A quick split by foliage:

• Needles in dense clusters on short spur shoots and upright barrel-shaped cones: a true cedar (Cedrus). In North America you meet these as planted landscape trees.
• Flat, fern-like sprays of tiny overlapping scales: arborvitae or western red cedar (Thuja), or incense cedar (Calocedrus).
• Prickly or scaly foliage with small blue "berries": a juniper, such as eastern red cedar or Ashe juniper.

The Missouri Department of Conservation states plainly that eastern red cedar is in the genus Juniperus, in the cypress family, and is not technically a cedar.

Wikipedia recognizes one to three species depending on the authority, with three usually listed: Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani), Atlas cedar (C. atlantica) and deodar cedar (C. deodara). The Cyprus cedar is treated either as a variety of Lebanon cedar or as its own species, C. brevifolia. They are native to the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean mountains, and Wikipedia places them in the pine family, Pinaceae.

How to recognize one:

• Needles 8 to 60 mm long, in dense spiral clusters of 15 to 45 on short shoots, and single on long new shoots (Wikipedia)
• Cones barrel-shaped, 6 to 12 cm, sitting upright on the branches and breaking apart on the tree to release winged seeds (Wikipedia)
• Deodar has drooping branch tips (ArborMasters; Wikipedia describes level branches with drooping branchlets)

Nature Hills gives mature heights of 40 to 60 feet in landscapes, and zones 6 to 11 depending on the species.

• Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana): MDC describes minute scale-like or needle-like leaves, olive to yellowish green and turning bronze after frost; light reddish-brown bark shredding in long thin strips; female cones fleshy and berry-like, about 1/4 inch, dark blue with a white waxy coating; height to 50 feet.
• Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei), the "cedar" of central Texas: MDC notes its scale leaves have finely toothed margins and its foliage stays darker green through winter. ArborMasters says its winter pollen is the main cause of "cedar fever," released December through March.
• Western red cedar (Thuja plicata): Wikipedia describes flat sprays of scale leaves in opposite pairs with whitish markings underneath, a pineapple-like smell when crushed, small cones 10 to 18 mm, and heights up to 70 m in the Pacific Northwest.
• White cedar or arborvitae (Thuja): Nature Hills describes soft scale foliage in flat sprays and small papery cones.
• Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens): Wikipedia describes scale leaves in apparent whorls of four, cones 20 to 35 mm, and orange-brown bark peeling in long strips; it grows from southwest Oregon through California. Its wood was once the main pencil wood.
• Redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii): ArborMasters notes bright red berries in fall and winter.

In spring, look for brown galls on the twigs. MDC describes the cedar-apple rust gall on eastern red cedar as a woody, purple-brown ball that develops golden-orange, jelly-like extensions when wet. Finding these galls on a scale-leaved tree is a quick pointer to eastern red cedar. None of the top-ranking cedar guides mentions this sign.

Wikipedia's cedar wood article lists the main commercial sources as western red cedar (Thuja plicata), eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), the true cedars (Cedrus) and Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata). Spanish cedar is not a conifer at all: Wikipedia places it in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae, and notes its aromatic wood is used for humidors.

The properties differ by source. Wikipedia notes western red cedar heartwood contains thujaplicins, natural fungicides that keep it from rotting for about a century after felling. MDC lists eastern red cedar's aromatic wood for chests, closets, posts and pencils.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every measurement, date and claim was then checked against the sources listed below, which were opened and read on 2026-09-25. Where two sources give different numbers, both are shown.