Cedrus libani

cedar of Lebanon species

Pinaceae › Cedrus

Cedar of Lebanon is in the pine or Pinaceae family and is native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It can reach up to 40 m tall and 2.5 m in diameter. Trunks of older trees often fork into numerous stems.

  • Crown is dense, pyramidal in youth, developing a wide umbrella shape. Primary branches tend to grow horizontally, spreading wide, with secondary branches also horizontal and more dense.
  • Evergreen needles are dark green to gray-blue, in clusters of 15-35 needles on short shoots, 1–3.5 cm long in dense whorls on small shoots.
  • Species is monoecious. Male cones occur at the ends of the short shoots and are up to 7 cm long, on the lower part of the tree, maturing from pale green to brown. Female seed cones are upright, in clusters, 8–10 cm long, 7.5 cm across, purple-green and ripening to brown, taking 2 years to mature. They disintegrate at maturity (fragmenting cones), dropping their seeds.

Contributors

  • Vyacheslav Argenberg
  • Philippe de Spoelberch