 Cedar Western Red Thuja plicata is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada, from southern Alaska and British Columbia south to northwest California and inland to western Montana.
Western Redcedar is a large tree, to 50-60 m tall and 3 m (exceptionally 6 m) trunk diameter. The Quinault Lake Redcedar (left) is the largest known Western Redcedar in the world with a wood volume of 500 cubic meters. Located near the northwest shore of Lake Quinault north of Aberdeen, Washington, about 34 km from the Pacific Ocean, it is 53.0 m high with a diameter of 5.94 m. It is among the most widespread trees in the Pacific Northwest, and is associated with Douglas-fir and Western hemlock in most places where it grows. In addition to growing in lush forests, Western Redcedar is also a riparian tree, and grows in many forested swamps and streambanks in its range. The tree is shade-tolerant, and able to reproduce under dense shade.
Western Redcedar is the Provincial tree of British Columbia. It is also known (mainly in the American horticultural trade) as Giant Arborvitae. The name Western Redcedar is also sometimes split into three words as 'Western Red Cedar', though this can cause confusion, as it is not a cedar.
The soft red-brown timber is valued for its resistance to decay, being extensively used for outdoor construction in the form of posts, decking, shingles, siding, and so forth. It is cultivated as an ornamental tree and also (to a limited extent) in forestry plantations and for screens and hedges. It has been introduced to other parts of the temperate zone, including western Europe, Australia (at least as far north as Sydney), New Zealand, the eastern United States and higher elevations of Hawaii. It is also used to line closets and chests, for the pungent aromatic oils from the wood are believed to discourage moth larvae, which can damage cloth by their eating. This is of course more effective in a properly constructed redcedar chest (sometimes made entirely of cedar), since the oils are confined by shellac and leather seals. A well sealed redcedar chest will retain its pungent odor for many decades, sometimes over a century.
Native American Uses
Western redcedar has an extensive history of use by the Native American people of the northwest coast of North America, from Oregon to southeast Alaska. Its wood is used to make canoes, totem poles, houses, masks, helmets, armor, boxes, utensils, tools, and many other art and utility objects. Some northwest coast tribes refer to themselves as "people of the redcedar" because of their extensive dependence on the tree for basic materials. The essential oil was used traditionally by the Canadian Native Americans to help them enter a higher spiritual realm. They used it to stimulate the scalp and as an antiseptic agent.
Adulteration
There is substantial adulteration and blending among cedarwood oils and there is no demarcation between the commercial Cedarwood oils, although there is a botanical difference between the species and one of the cedarwoods (Texas) is even in a different family.
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