Calocedrus, the incense cedar (alternatively spelled incense-cedar), is a genus of in the cypress family Cupressaceae first described as a genus in 1873.
Description
The genus is related to
Thuja, and has similar overlapping scale-leaves.
Calocedrus differs from
Thuja in the scale leaves being in apparent whorls of four (actually opposite decussate pairs like
Thuja, but not evenly spaced apart as in
Thuja, instead with the successive pairs closely then distantly spaced), and in the
conifer cone having just 2–3 pairs of moderately thin, erect scales, rather than 4–6 pairs of very thin scales in
Thuja.
Taxonomy
The generic name
Calocedrus means "beautiful cedar".
Cladogram showing the evolutionary relationships:
Species
Extant species
Extinct species
Uses
Archery
Incense cedar was one of the favored varieties of wood used to make bows by Native Americans in California. Like
juniper, and
Taxus brevifolia, the other two coveted bow woods among Pacific Natives, this wood has excellent flexibility and compression strength-weight ratio. When backed with sinew, it produces extremely flexible, fast, hard-hitting bows, which are rivaled only by horn-sinew composite bows for their ability to store and release elastic energy. The archer Saxton Pope observed that
Ishi used this wood to produce short bows.
Lumber
The
wood of
Calocedrus is soft, moderately decay-resistant, and with a strong spicy-resinous fragrance. That of
C. decurrens is the primary material for wooden
, because it is soft and tends to sharpen easily without forming splinters. The two Asian species were (at least in the past) in very high demand for
coffin manufacture in China, due to the scent of the wood and its decay resistance. It is likely that past over-exploitation is responsible for their current rarity.
Incense cedar was the preferred Bow drill of the Native Peoples of Northern California for Firelighting by friction.
Cultivation
Calocedrus decurrens, the California incense cedar, is a popular
ornamental tree, grown particularly in locations with cool summer climates like
United Kingdom, Washington and
British Columbia. Its very narrow columnar crown in landscape settings, an unexplained consequence of the climatic conditions in these areas, is not shown by trees in their native 'wild'
habitat. The California incense cedar is also valued for its
drought tolerance. The Asian species are rarely cultivated.
[Munz, P. A. 1974. Flora of Southern California 1–1086. University of California Press, Berkeley.]
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