California Incense Cedar (LA Urban Forest Program)

California Incense Cedar

Calocedrus decurrens

Alternative names ¹⁰

California incense cedar, California white cedar, bastard cedar, California calocedar, post cedar, white cedar, red cedar

Description ¹¹

General: Cypress family Cupressaceae. Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens is a medium sized tree eighty to one hundred twenty feet high (Preston 1989). The leaves are small, scale-like, oblong-ovate, in whorls of four, decurrent, and closely adnate on the branchlets and aromatic when crushed. The flowers are monecious, appearing in January on the ends of short lateral branchlets of the previous year. The fruit is reddish-brown or yellowish-brown that ripens in the early autumn and remains on the tree until spring. The bark is bright cinnamon-red, broken into irregularly ridges, and covered with closely appressed plate-like scales (Sargent 1961).

Distribution: Calocedrus decurrens is native to the mountains from western Oregon in higher Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada to southern California and western Nevada. For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

Description ¹²

Trees to 57 m; trunk to 3.6 m diam. Bark cinnamon brown, fibrous, furrowed and ridged. Branchlet segments mostly 2 or more times longer than wide, broadening distally. Leaves 3--14 mm, including long-decurrent base, rounded abaxially, apex acute (often abruptly), usually mucronate. Pollen cones red-brown to light brown. Seed cones oblong-ovate when closed, red-brown to golden brown, proximal scales often reflexed at cone maturity, median scales then widely spreading to recurved, distal scales erect. Seeds 4 or fewer in cone, 14--25 mm (including wings), light brown. 2 n = 22.

Fuentes y créditos

(c) benjaminmeersman, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por benjaminmeersman
(c) 1998 California Academy of Sciences, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=16146&one=T
(c) Mark Rosenstein, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Mark Rosenstein
(c) Wikimedia Commons, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Calocedrus_decurrens_7976.jpg
(c) Shane Jordan, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Shane Jordan
(c) Maggie, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/13389908@N03/2299565614
(c) Harpo Faust, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Harpo Faust
(c) 2008 Keir Morse, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=267226&one=T
(c) 1998 California Academy of Sciences, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=15189&one=T
(c) USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/1379515
(c) USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/1379518
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/5006955