Cedrus libani

• BOTANICAL NAME: Cedrus libani
• PRONUNCIATION: SEE-drus luh-BAWN-e
• COMMON NAME: Cedar-of-Lebanon
• FAMILY: Pinaceae
• NATIVITY: Taurus Mountains, Turkey, Lebanon.
• GROWTH HABIT: Stiffly pyramidal in youth, becoming a stately flat-topped tree in maturity.
• SIZE: 50 - 60' to 120' in the wild.
• HARDINESS: Zone 5 - 8.
• CULTURE: Sun and well drained, loose soil. Dirr states that this
  plant requires a pollution free environment, yet there is a plant at the
  University of Delaware Botanic Gardens in the middle of a parking lot.
• LANDSCAPE USE: Stately specimen tree. A bird-attracting tree.
• FOLIAGE: Alternate, typically in whorls of 30- 40 needles per spur, 3/4 - 1 1/2" long.
  Needles are 4 sided, broader than tall in cross-section, stiff and dark green in color.
• BUDS: Small, oval, brown.
• BARK: Brown.
• FRUIT: Cone borne singly, stalked, 3 - 5" long by 2 - 2 1/2" wide. Apex of cone flattened or slightly depressed.
• PROPAGATION: Seed, cultivars are grafted.
• PESTS: None serious.
• CULTIVARS:
  • var. stenocoma - hardier form with a stiff habit.
  • `Sargentii' - dwarf form to 5'