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Eastern Redcedar, Juniperus virginiana

redcedar.jpg
Illustration by Adelaide Tyrol

This “cedar,” like most of the many other trees given that name, is not a cedar at all. It’s a juniper. And despite having round, blue fruits that look just like berries and not at all like cones, eastern red cedar is a conifer. The skin of the berry consists of soft scales that have coalesced, so in theory it might properly be called a cone, farfetched as that may seem. The foliage appears in two forms: young leaves stick out and are sharp-pointed and much longer than the other, older kind – tiny, scale-like leaves pressed tightly to the twig.

Tom Wessels, in Reading the Forested Landscape, uses the relative amount of eastern redcedar compared to that of its more northern relative, common juniper (Juniperus communis), to define the northern boundary of southern New England. Southern New England, he says, begins when the mix of these two species is 50-50, and this follows a wavy line across Massachusetts. Farther south, in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the columnar profiles of redcedars far outnumber the low, spreading shapes of common junipers, a shape that is, indeed, very common farther north. Eastern redcedar’s large range extends throughout almost all of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, but it doesn’t quite make it as far north as northern New England.

In central and southern New England, the eastern redcedars that fill in old fields and line roads and highways look as though they must surely have been planted. The symmetrical, formal, upright, narrowly conical, and tidy trees suggest that a horticulturalist’s dream has come true; but in truth, they are opportunistic native trees, well equipped to invade abandoned fields or wastelands. Far from being fussy nursery stock, they thrive under adverse conditions, in dry, thin, acidic soils.

And it’s birds, not the local nursery, that do the landscaping. Tony Holthuijzen, a biologist who studied cedar waxwings – named for their fondness for eastern redcedar berries – found that it takes 12 minutes for a redcedar seed to pass through the digestive system of a cedar waxwing, and that, after taking that trip, the seed is three times as likely to germinate as one that merely falls to the ground. Waxwings and many other bird species often digest their food while sitting on pasture fences, resulting in redcedar hedgerows that faithfully follow fencelines. If berry-eating birds spend time on high-up telephone lines, the seeds are distributed more randomly.

Cedar waxwings are known for their ability to process fruits, but many other birds join them at the annual fall redcedar berry banquet. Robins, mockingbirds, bluebirds, ruffed grouse, wild turkeys, goldfinches, flickers, and grosbeaks all like the berries, as do a long list of mammals: meadow mice, bears, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, skunks, possums, coyotes, and deer.

In between berry crops, eastern redcedar’s dense evergreen foliage is well used for nesting and cover by wild animals. The branches, especially when the trees are young, go right to the ground, providing a safe refuge. The foliage is not a prized edible for most wildlife species but is used as emergency food. Because cattle dislike the prickly branches, they carefully weed the grasses around redcedar seedlings, allowing the little trees to gain a foothold even before a pasture is abandoned.

Eastern redcedar is a small tree, usually topping out at about 40 or 50 feet, and these days it is mostly used for fence posts as it has good rot resistance. In earlier times, there was a bountiful supply of larger trees and the wood was much more widely used that it is now. Early colonists used it for split rail fences, pails, buckets, tubs, sills, and shipbuilding. Its nearly white sapwood contrasts dramatically with the deep purplish-red heartwood. Sometimes called aromatic cedar, the wood is deliciously fragrant and is used in making chests and closet linings because it repels moths.

The uniform, fine-grained heartwood is among the few woods that cooperate when put into a pencil sharpener and many millions of pencils have been made from eastern redcedar. Only the clearest, knot-free sections of heartwood are suitable for pencils, and most of the wood that heads off to a pencil factory is wasted. The supply of eastern redcedar was much diminished by the 1940s, and now most pencils are made from incense-cedar, a western species.

For a pioneer species, this tree is long-lived and can persist for 200 to 300 years, outliving its hardwood compatriots, especially on poor sites where it may be better at appropriating nutrients and water.

Discussion *

May 20, 2020

Great article and comments!!!

Toby Hoffman
Dec 29, 2013

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/174251

Exposure to an environment containing the aromatic red cedar, Juniperus virginiana: procarcinogenic, enzyme-inducing and insecticidal effects.
Sabine JR.
Abstract
(1) Shavings from the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) were examined for three diverse biological properties, i.e. enzyme induction, procarcinogenicity and insecticidal activity. (2) The ability of a cedar environment to stimulate liver drug-metabolizing enzymes in mice was confirmed by lowered values for barbiturate sleeping time. (3) In susceptible strains of mice (C3H-Avy, C3H-AvyfB and CBA/J) the use of cedar shavings as bedding increased significantly the incidence of spontaneous tumors of the liver and mammary gland, and also reduced the average time at which tumors appeared. (4) Cedar and some of its derivatives (Oil of Cedarwood, cedrene, cedrol) disrupted the reproductive and developmental cycle of a number of insects, including the Peanut Trash Bug (Elasmolomus sordidus), the Indian Meal Moth (Plodia interpunctella) and the Forage Mite (Tyrophagus putrescentiae).

PMID: 174251 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Keith Rowell
Dec 05, 2011

Dear Picton Pete,

Please see below for a response from Maine naturalist and writer, Tom Seymour (http://wildplantsandwoolybears.blogspot.com/), to your question about edible uses for redcedar berries.

“The reader mentions the (red cedar) berries being used to flavor
gin. It is not red cedar, but rather, Juniper berries (common or ground juniper berries) that are used to flavor gin and also to season meat. Swedish cooks love them for that purpose.

But red cedar berries may be somewhat toxic, at least I would not use them. The only use I am aware of for red cedar is for making fragrant furniture—jewelry boxes and so on.

So my best advice is for your reader to admire his trees, perhaps
break of a tip and relish the fragrant aroma, but don’t use any of it
internally.

—Tom Seymour”

Meghan
Nov 28, 2011

I have about 4 acres of eastern red cedar in Picton Ontario, along the north shore of Lake Ontario. Didn’t think much of them at first, and my farming neighbours curse them because they’re so invasive in pasture lands, but I’ve grown to respect and admire them. They are survivors, and as they mature each specimen seems to develop a distinctive shape and personality. The more senior trees seem to develop wonky branching patterns, producing an enchanted forest setting. Our soil is quite thin, with limestone not far below. I’ve had to cut a number of them for various reasons, and after a day of feeding the chipper shredder the heady aroma on my clothes fills the house. 
I know the blue berries are used in gin making, but are there any other edible uses?

Picton Pete

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