The name arborvitae is particularly used in the horticultural trade in the United States. It is Latin for "tree of life" - due to the supposed medicinal properties of the sap, bark, and twigs. Despite its common names, it is not a true cedar in the genus Cedrus, nor is it related to the Australian white cedar, Melia azedarach.
Description
Unlike the closely related western red-cedar, northern white-cedar is only a small or medium-sized tree, growing to a height of tall with a trunk diameter, exceptionally to tall and diameter. The tree is often stunted or prostrate in less favorable locations. The bark is red-brown, furrowed and peels in narrow, longitudinal strips. Northern white-cedar has fan-like branches and scaly leaves. The foliage forms in flat sprays with scale-like leaves long. The seed cones are slender, yellow-green, ripening to brown, long and broad, with 6-8 overlapping scales. They contain about 8 seeds each. The branches may take root if the tree falls.
Northern white-cedar grows naturally in wet forests, being particularly abundant in coniferous swamps where other larger and faster-growing trees cannot compete successfully. It also occurs on other sites with reduced tree competition, such as cliffs. Although not currently listed as endangered, wild white-cedar populations are threatened in many areas by high deer numbers; deer find the soft evergreen foliage a very attractive winter food, and strip it rapidly. The largest known specimen is tall and diameter, on South Manitou Island within Leelanau County, Michigan. Northern white-cedar can be a very long-lived tree in certain conditions, with notably old specimens growing on cliffs where they are inaccessible to deer and wildfire; the oldest known living specimen is just over 1,100 years old, but a dead specimen with over 1,650 growth rings has been found. Despite their age, these very old trees are small and stunted due to the difficult growing conditions. The Witch Tree, a T. occidentalis growing out of a cliff face on Lake Superior in Minnesota, was described by the French explorerSieur de la Verendrye as being a mature tree in 1731; it is still alive today. , Wisconsin White-cedar specimens found growing on cliff faces in southern Ontario are the oldest trees in Eastern North America and all of Canada, growing to ages in excess of 1,653 years.
Uses
White-cedar is a tree with important uses in traditional Ojibwe culture. Honored with the name Nookomis Giizhik, the tree is the subject of sacred legends and is considered a gift to humanity for its myriad uses, among them crafts, construction, and medicine. It is one of the four plants of the Ojibwe medicine wheel, associated with the north. White-cedar foliage is rich in Vitamin C and is believed to be the annedda which cured the scurvy of Jacques Cartier and his party in the winter of 1535–1536. Due to the presence of the neurotoxic compound thujone, internal use can be harmful if used for prolonged periods or while pregnant. Northern white-cedar is commercially used for rustic fencing and posts, lumber, poles, shingles and in the construction of log cabins. White-cedar is the preferred wood for the structural elements, such as ribs and planking, of birchbark canoes and the planking of wooden canoes. The essential oil within the plant has been used for cleansers, disinfectants, hair preparations, insecticides, liniment, room sprays, and soft soaps. There are some reports that the Ojibwa made a soup from the inner bark of the soft twigs. Others have used the twigs to make teas to relieve constipation and headache. In the 19th century, T. occidentalis extract was in common use as an externally applied tincture or ointment for the treatment of warts, ringworm, and thrush. "An injection of the tincture into venereal warts is said to cause them to disappear." Strips of clear, northern white-cedar wood were used to make the original Au Sable river boats, formerly known as the "pickup trucks of the Au Sable". The light, rot resistant wood was preferred but is now commonly replaced by marine grade plywood. Since the plywood is available in lengths of 8 feet, the modern boats are slightly shorter than the older boats which were around 25 feet long.
Cultivation
Northern white-cedar, often under the name arborvitae, is widely used as an ornamental tree, particularly for screens and hedges, in gardens, parks and cemeteries. Over 300 cultivars exist, showing great variation in colour, shape and size, with some of the more common ones being: 'Degroot's Spire', 'Ellwangeriana', 'Hetz Wintergreen', 'Lutea', 'Rheingold', 'Smaragd', 'Techny', and 'Wareana'. It was introduced into Europe as early as 1540. The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
