Hillbilly Christmas trees. Pencil cedars. Weed trees.<\/p>\n
The red cedar (which is in the Juniper Family and is not a cedar at all) clearly has a bad reputation.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Juniper_bark-200x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The tree is made even less popular by the large amounts of pollen it produces during the season.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the tree is something of an icon of the Ozark hills. Red cedars, native to North America, thrive on poor soils.<\/p>\n
Following widespread logging of white oak and other hard woods late in the 19th century and early in the 20th, the red cedar filled in where nothing else would.<\/p>\n
Today, heavy stands of the species can be found pretty much anywhere someone has cleared a space.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Juniper_berries.jpg\")
The cones \u2014 which look decidedly berry-like \u2014 are an important food for birds, most notably the cedar waxwing.<\/p>\n
This \u201cweed tree\u201d is a true example of the balance found in nature. In time, the stands of juniper will allow for hardwoods such as oak to regrow.<\/p>\n
The lowly cedar tree is an important \u2014 and beautiful \u2014 part of the Ozark landscape.<\/p>\n
Originally published NOVEMBER 8, 2008<\/span><\/p>\n SIZE:<\/span> 40-50 feet tall; leaves 1\/16 – 1\/4-inch long. WHAT TO LOOK FOR:<\/span> leaves overlapping, dark green, scalelike (mature) or needlelike (young); cones berrylike, dark blue, with waxy bloom; crown may be narrowly or broadly pyramidal. HABITAT:<\/span>abandoned fields in poor, dry soils.<\/p>\n \u2014 page 296, Wernett, Susan J., et al. North American Wildlife<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span> The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1986.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Lowly Red Cedar BY JOSHUA HESTON Hillbilly Christmas trees. Pencil cedars. Weed trees. The red cedar (which is in the Juniper Family and is not a cedar at all) clearly has a bad reputation. The tree is made even less popular by the large amounts of pollen it produces during the season. Nevertheless, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1036,905],"tags":[1481,1480,1482],"class_list":["post-8344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarktrees","category-sotonaturalheritage","tag-juniper-family","tag-red-cedar","tag-uniperus-virginiana","category-1036","category-905","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8348,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8344\/revisions\/8348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}RED CEDAR (JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA)<\/span><\/h3>\n