The national emblem of a Middle Eastern country appears on its flag, and this conifer was planted at almost every stately home from the 1740s
Cedar of Lebanon.
Nature · Trees
Cedar of Lebanon
Neophyte (in Britain 1638) · evergreen conifer to 35 m · country-house parks and gardens
Cedrus libani — Pinaceae
The great layered cedar of the English country-house lawn, first grown in Britain in 1638 and planted at nearly every stately home from the 1740s. It is the national emblem of Lebanon and appears on the Lebanese flag. In Britain a serious fungal disease, Sirococcus blight, was first found on cedars in 2013.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Broad, flat-topped crown with branches held in horizontal, layered plates of foliage and a massive, often multi-stemmed trunk
- ▸Dark grey-green needles, 2 to 3.5 cm, in tufts (rosettes) along short shoots
- ▸Barrel-shaped cones 8 to 12 cm long, upright on the branch, with a flat top and papery feel, taking 12 months to ripen
- ▸Blackish-brown bark cracked into close ridges
- ▸Look-alike: Atlas cedar has more upright, ascending branches, shorter needles that are often blue-grey and a pyramidal outline; Lebanon cedar has flat, tiered, horizontal branching.
How to know it
Layers of flat, horizontal plates of foliage on a broad, flat-topped parkland conifer with upright barrel-shaped cones
Cedar of Lebanon.
The earliest known introduction to Britain was in 1638, and the original tree near Wantage is said to be still thriving
Cedar of Lebanon (Forest Research).
In antiquity its timber was used for temples, and its oil was used in embalming in Egypt
Cedar of Lebanon.
Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN in its fragmented native range in Turkey, Syria and its namesake country
Cedar of Lebanon.
Sirococcus blight, caused by a fungus first found in England in 2013, turns its needles pink and kills shoots
Cedar of Lebanon (Woodland Trust). Sirococcus tsugae.
Quick-fire facts
- •Cedrus libani — a true cedar (genus Cedrus, family Pinaceae), unlike western red cedar
- •Earliest known introduction to Britain 1638; planted in the grounds of nearly every stately home and mansion from the 1740s (Forest Research; Woodland Trust)
- •National emblem of Lebanon and central to its flag
- •Native to the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon; IUCN Vulnerable (Forest Research)
- •Cedar wood oil was used in antiquity, and the wood repels clothes moths, so it is used in wardrobes
- •Old trees develop crevices used by tawny owls and roosting bats
- •Sirococcus blight (Sirococcus tsugae) was first found in England in 2013 and has since been confirmed in Wales and Scotland (Woodland Trust)
- •Also prone to honey fungus and aphid attack; not treated as invasive
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Cedar (Cedrus libani)
- Forest Research — Cedar-of-Lebanon (LCR)