Western Red Cedar- x̌əpayac - (Thuja plicata)
Western Redcedar is a fast-growing coniferous, evergreen tree with fragrant, fibrous, reddish-brown bark. These majestic trees can live to be over a thousand years, with the oldest known to have lived 1460 years. The foliage gives off an almost pineapple scent when crushed and forms flat sprays with green scale-like leaves. Slender cones are formed with thin, overlapping scales that turn from a yellowish-green to brown in the fall at maturation. The Western Redcedar is a real-life Giving Tree, for its myriad of practical uses in modern times. The wood is used for long-lasting furniture, fencing, decking, siding, shingles, posts, framing, as an insect-repelling liner, and for construction of many types of wooden boats. The Coast Salish people refer to the Western Redcedar with reverence as “Mother” and “Long Life Giver”. They have cultivated the wood for canoes, totem poles, and tools, and the bark for making rope, baskets, fishing nets, and traditional Salish hats.
*Prefers sun to partial sun. Does not tolerate full sun when young.
*Prefers fertile, moist, well-drained soils.
*Suitable for slopes, as an ornamental, as a screen or hedge in woodland gardens or in parks, riverbanks, and moist flats.
*Typically, 100 to 200 feet in height, 9-foot trunk diameter. Exceptional trees can reach a max height of 230 feet in height, max trunk diameter of 23 feet
*Sold Bare Root
*Sold in bundles of 10
x̌əpayac *Lushootseed provided by the Puyallup Tribal Language Program and audio by Chris Briden, Puyallup Tribal member.