Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Southern Range
We had a pleasant surprise on our walk through the canyon today. We just discovered that the majestic cedar near the iris garden is not a red cedar as we had previously thought, but rather a California Incense Cedar.
I suspect that we are not the first transplants from the Pacific Northwest to make this mistaken identification, seeing how the appearance of Western Red Cedar and incense cedar is nearly identical, and only distinguished easily by the very different seed cone, which finally caught my eye.
Still, the discovery was all the more exciting by the fact that in our many travels, we were already acquainted with the Alaska Yellow Cedar and the Port Orford (White) Cedar in addition to the red cedars that grew outside our former home in western Washington, but had never heard of incense cedar.
Short of visiting Lebanon, or Morocco, our cedar exploration is now complete.
I suspect that we are not the first transplants from the Pacific Northwest to make this mistaken identification, seeing how the appearance of Western Red Cedar and incense cedar is nearly identical, and only distinguished easily by the very different seed cone, which finally caught my eye.
Still, the discovery was all the more exciting by the fact that in our many travels, we were already acquainted with the Alaska Yellow Cedar and the Port Orford (White) Cedar in addition to the red cedars that grew outside our former home in western Washington, but had never heard of incense cedar.
Short of visiting Lebanon, or Morocco, our cedar exploration is now complete.
