General: Large tree, up to about 60 m tall; mature trees generally fluted and buttressed at the base; branches tend to spread, or droop slightly and then upturn; the branchlets spray-like, strongly flattened horizontally; bark ridged and fissured, readily tearing off in long thin strips; wood aromatic; growing 'tip' (leader) drooping.
Leaves: Scalelike, somewhat overlapping, closely pressed to stem, in opposite pairs; glossy yellowish-green, turning brown and shedding with age.
Cones: Seed cones green when immature, brown, egg-shaped, and 8-10 mm long when mature; pollen cones minute and reddish, numerous.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2008)
A shade-tolerant to shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to subalpine, Western North American evergreen conifer distributed more in the Pacific than the Cordilleran region. Occurs predominantly in cool temperate and cool mesothermal climates; its occurrence decreases with increasing latitude, elevation, and continentality. One of the most common trees in central and southern B. C.; often forms pure stands on floodplains and wetland sites. As does yellow-cedar, western redcedar tolerates a nearly complete edaphic range, and develops a very dense root system: the latter feature may explain its abundance on very steep, seepage-affected, and often unstable colluvial soils. Most productive on submontane, fresh to moist, nutrient-rich soils within cool mesothermal climates. Characteristic of cool temperate and mesothermal forests.
Wet to moist floodplains, river terraces and slopes, often rich with nutrients from seepage or fluvial deposits, or rich parent material, in the lowland and montane zones; common along the coast and SC to SE BC, locally frequent in C BC; N to SE AK and S to N CA, N WA, ID and MT
