Alaska Cedar

(Chamaecyparis nootkatensis)

Alaska Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis)

Identifying Characters: The female cone is about 0.5 inches in diameter and contains 4 to 6 cone scales. The scales have pointed apices and the apices are projecting free of the branchlet, not tight with the branch.

Similar Species: This species may occur with Port Orford Cedar in the southern reaches of its range. The apices of the scales of Alaska Cedar project freely from the branchlets and are not closely appressed to the branchlet as in Port Orford Cedar. The female cones of Alaska Cedar contain 4 to 6 cone scales, but Port Orford Cedar has 8 to 10 cone scales.

Measurements: Alaska Cedar is a long, thin tree with a narrow crown and with slightly hanging branches; height between 50 and 100 feet; diameter 1 to 4 feet at breast height.

Cones: Female cones about 0.5 inches in diameter, red-brown with 4 to 6 cone scales per cone; cone scales ending in a long point.

Leaves: Leaves scale-like, arranged opposite in 4 rows; scales about 1/8 inches long, pointed at the apex and the apex free, not tight on the branchlet; color yellow-green; glandular dots usually absent.

Bark: Bark gray-brown, thin, fibrous and shredding with long furrows.

Native Range: Alaska Cedar grows from northern California to Prince William Sound, Alaska Except for a few isolated stands, it is found within 160 km (100 miles) of the Pacific coast. Isolated stands in the Siskiyou Mountains, California, near the Oregon border mark its southern limit. In Oregon and Washington, Alaska-cedar grows in the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains; scattered populations are found in the Coast Ranges and in the Aldrich Mountains of central Oregon. In British Columbia and north to Wells Bay in Prince William Sound, Alaska, it grows in a narrow strip on the islands and coastal mainland. An exception in British Columbia is an isolated stand near Slocan Lake about 720 km (450 mi) inland. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Alaska Cedar is found primarily is wet coastal coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest on wet montane soils. Usually found mixed with other conifer species.