Port Orford Cedar

Cedars are native to north Africa, the middle east, and the Himalayan region-- not North America. So the several California conifers informally called "cedars" aren't, according to the experts.

Port Orford Cedar is one of those non-cedar cedars.

California conifers are about evenly split between those with needles (like a Christmas tree) and those with scales (like a juniper bush). Port Orford Cedar is in the cypress family, so its on the scaly side. True cedars have needles. Not a subtle difference.

But, unlike your average juniper bush, Port Orford Cedar grows up to about 200 feet, which is tall by most standards. For comparison, few species in the world break 300 feet. The tallest Coastal Redwoods are close to 400.

There are two really good books about California conifers. One is A Natural History of Western Trees, by Donald Culross Peattie, written in 1953. The other, Conifers of California, was written by Ronald Lanner about a half-century later, in 1999. I'll cite these books a lot.

Anyway, both books note that Port Orford Cedar has fragrant, rot-resistant wood, which explains the otherwise wildly-inaccurate "cedar" in the name.

But 50 years make for one big difference in the aacounts. Peattie noted that logging had taken a heavy toll on this tree by the middle of the last century. Lanner is more concerned with an additional threat, a fungus called phytophthora lateralis, which was apparently imported from Asia.

Phytophthora lateralis complicates a visit to Port Orford Cedar. Cars are generally blocked from areas where the tree grows, because tires might carry the disease. And cleaning shoes on the way in and out seems the considerate thing to do.