Foliage Notes:
Blue (Steel blue needle-like and scale-like evergreen leaves that take on a purple cast in the winter)
Soil Notes:
Widely adapted to soils, except those that are wet
Diagnostic Characteristics:
Leaves have a dull blue band above and are green below. The scale-like leaves are 4-ranked, closely pressed and overlapping, 0.06" long, and free at apex. Awl-like leaves (0.25") are 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.
