Jessie Keith
(Deodar Cedar)
Deodar cedar is among the world's most elegant and stately of evergreen conifers. This western Himalayan native tree has fast growth and develops a broad, pyramidal habit. Its dense branches are covered in green to blue-green needles. The branch tips often dangle softly downward, giving the entire tree a soft and luxurious feel. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially when viewed from under the canopy. The female cones are held upright on the upper tree branches and...
CEDRUS deodara 'Albospica'
Deodar cedar is a western Himalayan evergreen tree, and 'Albospicta' is the same tree except for its ivory-tipped new growth. It was iscovered in a garden in Ireland in 1899. It has a slower growth rate than the species and develops an upright but irregular pyramidal shape. The branches are dense and covered in green needles with the youngest tip growth an attractive ivory that slowly turns green in summer. These branch tips often dangle softly downward, giving the entire tree a soft and luxurious...
CEDRUS deodara 'Aurea'
(Deodar Cedar, Golden Deodar Cedar)
Golden Deodar cedar (also known by the cultivar name 'Aurea') is an evergreen, cone-bearing tree admired for beautiful yellowish new needles that slowly darken to yellow-green over the summer. It is slower growing than the species, which is native to the western Himalayas, and develops an open, upright pyramidal shape at a young age. The branch tips often dangle softly downward, giving the entire tree a relaxed, luxurious feel. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially...
CEDRUS deodara 'Feeling Blue'
James Burghardt
(Deodar Cedar, Feeling Blue Cedar)
CEDRUS deodara 'Prostrate Beauty'
(Deodar Cedar, Prostrate Beauty Cedar)
CEDRUS libani
Mary S. Thomas
(Cedar of Lebanon)
Among the world's most stately of evergreen conifers, cedar of Lebanon carries much historical and religious regard. This eastern Mediterranean native tree, from Turkey to Lebanon, has slow growth and eventually develops a broad, spreading and beautifully imposing habit. When younger it is more pyramidal in shape with brighter green foliage. Its horizonatal branches are covered in gray-green to dark green needles when older. With time, the trunks and branches become very picturesque, especially when...
CEDRUS libani ssp. stenocoma
(Hardy Cedar of Lebanon)
Among the world's most stately of evergreen conifers, cedar of Lebanon subspecies stenocoma is the most winter hardy of all true cedars, surviving into protected parts of USDA zone 4. This eastern Mediterranean native tree, from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, has slow growth and eventually develops a rigid, stiffened and pyramidal to almost column-like form. Its branches are covered in bright green then gray-green to dark green needles when older. With time, the trunks and branches become...
CEIBA pentandra
Michael Charters, www.calflora.net
(Ceiba, Kapok, Silk Cotton Tree)
Impressive in size and muscular in form, kapok has fragrant dull white flowers in late winter that produces pods filled with cottony fibers once used for stuffing lifejackets, furniture and pillows. A massive deciduous tree native to South America, it has been cultivated all across the tropics for so long that often it is misleadingly listed as native to Africa, southern Asia or "pantropical". The smooth gray bark of this monstrous plant puts elephants and the largest of dinosaurs to shame. With...
CEIBA pentandra 'Variegata'
(Variegated Kapok, Variegated Silk Cotton Tree)
Impressive in size and muscular in form, variegated kapok has fragrant dull white flowers in late winter followed by white and green foliage. A massive deciduous tree native to South America, it has been cultivated all across the tropics for so long that often it is misleadingly listed as native to Africa, southern Asia or "pantropical". With ages the trunk becomes magnificently buttressed.
In late winter and early spring, while the tree is barren of leaves, the green-gray branches bear five-petaled,...
CELASTRUS orbiculatus
(Oriental Bittersweet)
The showy orange and pink fruits of Oriental bittersweet are alluringly pretty in fall and a harvest time favorite, but don't be fooled by its beauty. This rampant woody vine from eastern Asia is considered a noxious weed in many parts of the world. In its natural habitat it twines up woodland trees in open forests and margins. Specimens were first brought to North America in the mid to late Nineteenth Century and escaped from cultivation. Now it is found in woodlands across much of eastern North...