Introduced · Up to 45 m

Western red cedar

Thuja plicata · Cupressaceae

Western 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.

Often mistaken for yew. How to tell them apart →

Know it by

ScalesTiny glossy scales in flat sprays, streaked white beneath.

ConesUp to 12 mm, above the branch, with 8 to 10 thin scales.

BarkLong upright ridges, grey where the sun reaches them.

Then check · ShapeA tall spire with an upright top shoot. Its branches curve up at their ends, and the sprays hang from them.

How to identify a western red cedar

Scales

Tiny, glossy and deep olive green, in flat sprays, with dull whitish streaks underneath and a sweet pineapple smell when crushed.

Chris Fluit, CC BY 4.0

Cones

Small, egg-shaped and upright, up to 12 mm long, standing in clusters above the branch, with 8 to 10 thin scales.

Bark

Dark reddish brown, soft and stringy, in long upright ridges that turn grey where the sun reaches them.

Learn the western red cedar in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely

Every part, in photographs

Western red cedar sprays: flat glossy sprays, pineapple when crushed — SpraysFlat glossy sprays, pineapple when crushed

Western red cedar cones: small upright cones opening into thin scales — ConesSmall upright cones opening into thin scales

Western red cedar bark: soft reddish brown bark in long stringy ridges — BarkSoft reddish brown bark in long stringy ridges

When to look

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In leaf

Flowers

Cones

In leaf: all year · Flowers: December to April · Cones: June to February

Every tree on the calendar

Where you’ll find it

Planted in gardens, often as a hedge, and for timber. It does best in wet places with more than 800 mm of rain a year, and is scarcer in dry or polluted parts. It copes with deep shade.

What it’s mistaken for

Western red cedar or yew?Both are dark evergreens clipped into hedges and screens.Leaves on a shoot

Western red cedar or cedar of Lebanon?The name puts the two together, and both are large dark evergreens of parks and big gardens.Size of a cone

Lawson cypressBoth are cypress-family evergreens with flat sprays of scale leaves, planted everywhere in parks, gardens and hedges. Leaf. Western red cedar: sweet, like pineapple. Lawson cypress: sour, like parsley.
Leyland cypressBoth make dense dark screens of scale-leaf foliage on shoots of the same width. Leaf. Western red cedar: dull whitish streaks underneath. Leyland cypress: no white marks at all.
Giant redwoodBoth are big park conifers with soft, stringy, reddish bark. Leaf. Western red cedar: in pairs, on flat sprays. Giant redwood: set all round a cord-like shoot.

More cypresses, junipers and redwoods

Giant redwoodSequoiadendron giganteum

JuniperJuniperus communis

Lawson cypressChamaecyparis lawsoniana

In the app

There’s more of the western red cedar in Treely

Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
A short round each dayUntil you know the western red cedar on sight, from any side
Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree

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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), Chris Fluit (CC BY 4.0), haida_gwaii (CC0), Ewan Shilland (CC BY 4.0), Шальнов Кирилл (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.