Port Orford Cedar

Scientific name: Chamaecyparis lawsoniana

 

Taxonomy

Family: Cupressaceae

Type: Coniferous trees

Native: YES

Plant Requirements

Zone: 5 to 8

Sun: Full to partial sun

Moisture: Medium

Plant Characteristics

Height: 100 ft

Width: 40 ft

Additional Characteristics

Trees

Small lot suitable

Flowering tree

Safe for beneath power lines

Fruit

Showy

Edible

Leaves

Good Fall color

Leaves fragrant

Gold foliage

Evergreen

Bark

Showy

Wildlife value

Attract hummingbirds

Attract butterflies

Attract birds

 

 

Description

Port Orford Cedar is a majestic Northwest native that grows best under maritime conditions 

of northern California into southern Oregon in the Coast Range. It is best recognized for 

its massive thick trunk conical silhouette and blue-green foliage. Also known as Lawson Falsecypress.

 

  Morphology:

This evergreen conifer grows from 60’-100’ feet tall and up to 40’ wide at maturity. It forms a narrow 

pyramidal tree featuring short upright branches and gently weeping tips.

 

Foliage consists of fern like leaves arranged in flattened sprays of blue-green needles with a spicy 

scent. Flattened frond-like twigs are arranged horizontally. The underside of the foliage displays 

distinct white "X" markings. Conversely, Western Red Cedar has “butterfly” shape on the underside 

of the leaves.

 

Male pollen cones form on the tips of the branchlets, and are ovate to oblong and dark brown to red 

at the time of pollen release in the late winter. Female flowers are green to blue-green, developing 

into round seed cones that are 1/3” across. Upon maturity they open and turn brown.

 

Brown, weathering to a gray-brown, mature bark is fibrous, ridged, deeply furrowed and may reach 4 to 

8 inches thick near the base.

 

  Adaptation:

Port Orford Cedar can grow in either sun or partial shade. It must have a well drained site and shelter 

from strong winds.

 

Because of its size this conifer is best suited to larger landscapes such as parks, golf courses or estates.

 

Scarification: Soak in water, let stand in water for 24 hours

Stratification: cold stratify for 60 days

Germination: sow seed1/8" deep, tamp the soil, mulch seed bed