The Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) [#662]is among world’s best known trees, revered for thousands of years as a symbol of fertility. King Solomon allegedly build the first Temple from its timber. It has been planted as an ornamental species as early as the 17thcentury. Richard S. Fields, the first owner of Marquand park was famous for growing Cedars of Lebanon trees as recorded and illustrated in Andrew Downing’s 1859 edition ofA Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.

The Hardy Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani stenocoma)[#667] is considered by some a subspecies of the Cedar of Lebanon and is native to the Taurus mountains in southwestern Turkey. It has a winter hardiness that makes it easier than the Cedar of Lebanon to grow in the Eastern United States. The tree is more upright, has shorter needles and a narrower cone. Seeds from Cedars of Lebanon in the Taurus mountains were first imported in the America in 1902 and grown at the Arnold Arboretum. The Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia has a Hardy Cedar of Lebanon which may have originated from these seeds.

Species Origin: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon

Habit: 100 – 130 feet tall and up to 70 feet wide. Narrowly conical when young but broadens with age developing a flat topped canopy made of tiers of long horizontal branches as it matures.

Habitat: Zones 5 -7.

Trunk/Stem: Stately tree with thick massive trunk and wide-spreading branches; the lower ones sweeping the ground. Bark gray brown with vertical fissures as it matures; forming warty protuberances on old trunks (this applies to all cedars). Branchlets very numerous, densely arranged, spreading along a horizontal plane.

Leaves: Evergreen, needle like, quadrilateral in cross section; pointed at apex; 30- 40 per spur, ¾ to 1 ½ inches long. On young shoot leaves borne singly; older wood has up to 20 rigid leaves arranged in whorls. Leaf color varies from blue-gray to dark green.

Flowers: Monoecious

Fruits and seeds: Ovoid female cones, vertical, barrel-shaped, pale green, developing a rose-purple tint by early fall. Impressed at the apex; taking two years to mature. Young cones have dried white resin on the scale margins. Male cones are erect, 2 inches tall and pale gray-green.

New Jersey Status: USDA Not Reported

Habit: 100 – 130 feet tall and up to 70 feet wide. Narrowly conical when young but broadens with age developing a flat topped canopy made of tiers of long horizontal branches as it matures.