Thursday Tree Love: Red Ceder

Linked to #ThursdayTreeLove

This is the tree in front of my house. A red cedar: it is huge and very majestic.

Juniperus virginiana, also known as eastern redcedar, red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains.

I looked up its “skirt” and took this photos: many, many branches there. Some branches not exposed to the sun have no needles anymore and break easily if you bend them.

It is nice to stand under it: the branches are low almost to the ground, holding the fresh piney smell within the natural canopy while providing relief from the sun rays.

The trunk is thick. If I hug it, I can only reach 3/4 of the way around it. Its bark is  filamentous: if you pull a small piece you can notice thin fibers lines.

Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Gymnospermae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Cupressales
Family:	Cupressaceae
Genus:	Juniperus
Section:	Juniperus sect. Sabina
Species:	J. virginiana