Platycladus orientalis

Oriental arborvitae or Oriental thuja is in the cypress or Cupressaceae family and is native or established in much of Asia from China and Japan through to India. In nurseries, it is still commonly known as Thuja orientalis. It is a slow-growing coniferous tree reaching up to 15 m tall.

Over 10 common cultivars are used extensively in gardens, with dwarf forms including: 'Aurea Nana', 'Baker', 'Compacta' and 'Juniperoides'; yellow-foliaged forms including: 'Conspicua' and 'Filiformis'.

• Foliage forms in flat sprays with scale-like leaves 2–4 mm long, arranged in desiccate pairs, tightly arranged on flat branchlets held in an upright orientation. There is a groove on the back of the leaf.
• Species is monoecious; male cones are small and inconspicuous; female cones are small, bluish-green and borne near the tips of branches.
• Female cones are rounded to egg-shaped, 15–20 mm long tight scales with horned points, blue-green, ripening brown in about eight months from pollination. Seeds are 4–6 mm long, with no wing.
• It is distinguished from Thuja plicata with the very different cones.