Flower Notes:
tiny, golden flowering buds at maturity
Foliage Notes:
Green (Dark- to bluish-green needle-like and scale-like evergreen leaves that take on a bronze or purple cast in the winter)
Stem Notes:
woody to green and awl-like
Fruit Notes:
Blue (Dioecious; attractive blue berries (cones) on female plants)
Soil Notes:
Widely adapted to soils, except those that are wet
Diagnostic Characteristics:
Leaves mostly scale-like, 4-ranked, closely pressed and overlapping, 0.06" long, and free at apex. Awl-like leaves (0.25") are glaucous above, and green below, usually in pairs found mostly on older trees. Terminal shoots are often elongated and turn red to a drab brown in winter. Branchlets are very narrow (less than 1 mm thick). Bruised foliage smells of cedar. Gray brown to red brown bark exfoliates in long strips.
