Confusion on Cedar Trees ???

9 years ago

Guys i am having hard times finding Cedrus Libani. I am from Turkey. I tell you why i am so confused:

I bought a Cedrus Libani the other day. It looks exactly like the photo i shared below. It is not completely erect. It has some branches growing side ways. That gardender had only 1 of them. So i couldn't get any more of those seedlings. That seedling was about 1,5 ft high.

Today i visited some other plant companies to get more seedlings. All they had 6-8 feet high ones. But they didn't look like Cedrus Libani at all. Because trunk of these trees were completely erect. So i couldn't make sure if they were Libani or Deodara.

The gardener told me that "Cedrus Libani's little branches will hang down while young Deodaras' have little branches going upwards" .

Here sometimes people confuse tree species. Some tree species are misnamed. So i gotta make sure.

I know i am not being very clear here. Hard to explain the problem with words. If you have some 5-6 ft Libani pics i would love to see them.

Or is there a way to distinguish them from each other?

Thanks.

This post was edited by Querorz on Wed, Dec 24, 14 at 10:01

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Comments (6)

Querorz
Original Author
9 years ago
Is this a Cedrus Libani?
Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
9 years ago
I have a young Cedrus libani 'stenocoma' (Taurus Cedar) growing 2' each year for the last 3 years. New growth is a little bit pendulous (but not as much as Deodara) but once it hardens off in fall it straightens out. Your photo is from early spring? It is likely Cedrus libani (NOT stenocoma), not C. deodara.

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Embothrium
9 years ago
Cedar-of-Lebanon tends to be stiff and prickly, with a clear spine at the tip of the needle. In the wild the massive looking cones open when snow collects around them and softens them. To facilitate this the maturing trees form tennis racket-like branches with networks of flat, intercrossing side branches in the outer part.

Complicating some identifications is var. stenocoma having intermediate features between Lebanese etc. and Moroccan (Atlas Mountain) cedars. And possible crossing between Lebanese and Himalayan cedars in cultivation, with C. deodara having a long coning period during which different individuals shed pollen at different times - so that some of them coincide with C. libani.

The one in the first picture on this thread is probably one of the scarecrow habit C. deodara forms sold under names such as C. libani 'Glauca Pendula', C. libani 'Beacon Hill' and so on. I have seen at least 3 distinct cultivars of this type on the market and in plantings here. Close viewing of these reveals obvious C. deodara morphology.

The Bitner conifer picture book from Timber Press captions a photo of the more common one C. deodara 'Libani Pendula', a presumed compromise name presented without explanation - although I may have seen the same combination listed in the self-published Welch/Haddow conifer names compendium (which went out the door when I reduced my book collection) as dating from some time ago.
Querorz
Original Author
9 years ago
smivies, thanks sir. When i look at the photos you shared, i can see that C.Libani gets an erect form at 4-5' height. So it might not be like what i thought.

bboy, thanks. A lot of technical terms here. Wow! I had to work on the text for a while to figure what you said :) . I guess i am not eligible to use the hints you gave to distinguish C.Libani from others. I wish i were. Thanks man.
Querorz
Original Author
9 years ago
I might take some photos of those seedlings soon and maybe you can identify them.
Querorz
Original Author
9 years ago
Guys i took a photo today. The one on the right is some kind of Cedar for sure, i don't know about the one on left. What do you think they are?