Western red cedar
Thuja plicataWestern red cedar is a tall conifer shaped like a spire, with its top shoot standing upright. Its flat, glossy sprays of tiny scales smell sweet, like pineapple, when crushed.
How to identify western red cedar →
Ewan Shilland, CC BY 4.0
Lookalikes
Western red cedar or yew?
Both are dark evergreens clipped into hedges and screens.
The quickest check
The quickest check is the leaves on a shoot. Western red cedar: tiny scales, 2 to 3 mm, in flat sprays. Yew: flat needles up to 4 cm, in two rows. No leaves on the tree? Check the fruit on the shoots.
At a glance
| Look at | Western red cedar | Yew |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves on a shoot | Tiny scales, 2 to 3 mm, in flat sprays | Flat needles up to 4 cm, in two rows |
| Fruit on the shoots | Small upright cones of thin scales | A bright red, fleshy fruit |
Two ways to tell them apart
Leaves on a shootLeaves
Fruit on the shootsCones
The two trees
Yew
Taxus baccataYew is a dark evergreen, often planted in churchyards. Its flat needles grow in two rows, almost black above and yellowish beneath. Female trees carry red berries, open at the tip.
How to identify yew →
In the app
See them side by side in Treely
- Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
- Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
- A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
- The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: quillipede (CC0), Ewan Shilland (CC BY 4.0), Chris Fluit (CC BY 4.0), John Witton (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.