The Eastern Red CedarJuniperus virginiana
Not a true cedar at all, but a juniper — and the first tree to claim a field once the plow moves on.
A juniper wearing a cedar's name
Despite the name, this isn't a true cedar at all — it's a juniper, and one of the easiest evergreens here to place. Its foliage grows as tiny overlapping scales pressed tight against the twig, rather than loose needles, giving each branchlet a braided, rope-like texture.
Crush a sprig between your fingers and the aromatic, unmistakably "cedar chest" scent gives it away instantly — the same oil that's kept moths out of closets for generations.
Tiny, scale-like leaves pressed tight against the twig in overlapping rows. Sharply aromatic when crushed.
Thin and reddish-brown, peeling off in long fibrous strips and shreds rather than plates or ridges.
Small, dusty blue-gray, berry-like cones about a quarter inch across — only on female trees, ripening in fall.
Dense and narrowly columnar to pyramidal, evergreen year-round, often growing in open, sunny ground.
A pioneer of abandoned ground
Eastern red cedar has a talent for showing up where nothing else will. It thrives in poor, dry soil and full sun, which makes old pastures, fencerows, and abandoned farm fields its favorite territory — often the very first tree to take hold once a field stops being worked.
Only female trees produce the small blue berries, since red cedar keeps male and female cones on separate trees entirely. Those berries are a genuine favorite of cedar waxwings — the bird is named for it — along with robins and bluebirds, who spread the seeds widely in their droppings.
Its dense, year-round foliage also makes it one of the best winter windbreaks and shelter trees in an open field, valuable to birds long after summer ends.
Rot-resistant, and put to work
Red cedar's heartwood resists rot in the ground for decades, which made it the go-to timber for fence posts and rails on farms across the region for well over a century — some still standing are older than the farm itself. That same aromatic, insect-repelling wood found its way into cedar chests and closet linings for the same reason: nothing likes to nest in it.
- 1600s–1900s Farmers across the region relied on red cedar's rot-resistant heartwood for fence posts and rails.
- 1800s–1900s Its aromatic wood became a standard lining for cedar chests and closets, prized for repelling moths.
- Today Still the first tree to reclaim an unused field or fencerow across the Hudson Valley.
A rust that needs two trees to survive
Cedar-apple rust is a fungus that can't complete its life cycle on cedar alone — it needs to alternate between red cedar and an apple, crabapple, or hawthorn tree over a two-year cycle. If there's an orchard or apple tree nearby, that partnership becomes a real concern for both trees.
On the cedar, it shows up as small brown, woody galls on the branches. After a wet spring, those galls do something dramatic: they swell and sprout bright orange, gelatinous horn-like tendrils that release spores toward any nearby apple trees.
Look for round, brown galls on the branches, roughly the size of a marble to a golf ball. After spring rain, check again — infected galls sprout unmistakable bright orange horns for a few days before drying out.
Check branches for round woody galls, most visible in late winter and early spring.
After a spring rain, look for bright orange gelatinous horns — the fungus releasing spores.
If apple or crabapple trees grow nearby, check their leaves for orange spots in summer.
If you spot heavy galling here on the farm, let us know at the address below — especially near the orchard.