Just about everyone knows what an eastern red cedar is.
It is the wild, native evergreen we see in abandoned fields and along fence lines. Although an attractive winter tree, it can be invasive, especially in pastures and woodlots. The red cedar is not really a cedar but a juniper. Actually, there are no native cedars in the United States, although many are planted as ornamental trees.
The difference between a juniper and a cedar is based on certain botanical features. The eastern red cedar has both male and female trees. The biological term for this is dioecious, which is derived from the Greek meaning “two houses.” In other words, male and female houses or male and female trees. At this time of the year, both can be seen.
The male tree has tiny brown pollen cones, and the female tree has lovely blueberries.
Even at a distance, one can tell them apart. The male tree is brownish in color, because of the pollen cones, and the female tree is a deep green or bluish green because of the berries.
We had a red cedar in the back yard that died. After I cut the branches and stripped off the bark, I had Clayton Coss, a chainsaw wood sculptor artist, create the relief of a wizard on it (three attached pictures).
If you were suffering from allergies earlier in the year, it was probably caused by the highly allergenic pollen of the mountain cedar, another juniper, found in south-central Oklahoma (Arbuckle Mountains) and central Texas. The prevailing winds blew the pollen this way through February, when our native red cedars began to pollinate. Mountain cedar pollen is one of the most potent allergens in the United States.
