Urban Forestry | Eastern White Cedar

Join City of Toronto Urban Forestry staff in Don Valley Brick Works Park for identification tips of eastern white cedar --Thuja occidentalis.

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Transcript

Hi, I'm Mark from the City of Toronto's Natural Environment and Community Programs group.
I'm in the Don Valley Brick Works Park standing in front of Ontario's oldest growing species of tree, the eastern white cedar. Let's take a closer look!

Eastern white cedar, Thuja occidentalis in Latin, is a medium sized tree, growing up to 15 metres tall, with a tidy looking, symmetrical teardrop shape, of dense, feathery foliage. Cedars have scales for leaves, which are flat, waxy, yellowish-green, four to five millimetre segments, growing in an overlapping repetitive sequence. The foliage grows in short strips, which together form fan-like spreading patterns.

In the winter, the scales remain, but their colour dulls to green-bronze in tone. As the leaves grows outwards from the trunk, the central line of scales hardens and becomes the woody branches. As branches mature, they thicken to become round and reddish–brown in colour. The young trunk's bark is shiny red-brown, but matures to soft, flat and fibrous, long, narrow, grey-brown strips.

Cedars grow as multi-stem trees near water, or as single stem trees when planted in the city. Their cones are small, between seven to 12 millimetres, and oval in shape, growing upwards from the twigs. They start out as soft and green, and mature to woody and brown. Their tightly wrapped cone scales, unfurl in the autumn and release single winged-seeds, then they stay on the twigs looking like small wooden roses which are shed slowly over the winter.

When you find an eastern white cedar, gently rub a bit of the scales to release its distinctive, delightfully cedary fragrance.

Now that you know what you're looking for, keep your eyes open in wet areas and rocky landscapes.

Thanks for watching, Nature in the City.