Western Redcedar is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the c
ypress family Cupressaceae, native to the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada, from southern Alaska and British Columbia south to northwest California and internal to western Montana.
ypress family Cupressaceae, native to the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada, from southern Alaska and British Columbia south to northwest California and internal to western Montana.The shrubbery forms flat sprays with scale-like leaves in opposite pairs, with succeeding pairs at 90° to each other. The flora sprays are green above, and green marked white with stomatal bands below. The cones are slight, 15-20 mm long and 4-5 mm broad, with 8-12 thin, overlapping scales.
Western Redcedar is a large tree, to 50-60 m tall and 3 m (extremely 6 m) trunk diameter. The Quinault Lake Redcedar (left) is the major known Western Redcedar in the world with a wood volume of 500 cubic meters. Located near the northwest shore of Lake Quinault north of Aberdeen, Washington, about 34 km from the Pacific Ocean, it is 53.0 m high with a diameter of 5.94 m (Van Pelt, 2001). A Redcedar over 71 m tall and 700 years old stood in Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, before it was set on fire and destroyed by vandals in 1972.
It is among the most extensive trees in the Pacific Northwest, and is associated with Douglas-fir and Western hemlock in most places where it grows. In addition to growing in lush forests, Western Redcedar is also a riparian tree, and grows in many wooded swamps and streambanks in its range. The tree is shade-tolerant, and able to replicate under opaque shade.
