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Forestry
Champion Trees
Eastern Red Cedar -
(Juniperus virginiana L.)
Scattered throughout the well manicured grounds of the Shady
Grove Cemetery near Clarendon, Arkansas are a handful of
venerable evergreen
trees, patiently keeping watch, both day and night. For years these verdant
sentinels have served as silent witnesses of the interment of a host of mortals
put to their final rest. The largest of these weathered giants was recently
recognized and received a long awaited honor.
This Arkansas Champion Tree, an Eastern Red Cedar, is the
largest of its kind known in Arkansas. The previous Arkansas Champion Eastern
Red Cedar was located in Union County, owned by Gailon O. Hall of El Dorado,
Arkansas. It was 8 feet, 7 inches in circumference, with a height of 66 feet,
and a crown spread of 28 feet which equates to a (BI) Bigness Index of 176. The
new Champion, recently nominated by retired Monroe County Cooperative Extension Service
Agent Reggie Talley, is 10 feet 11 inches in circumference, with a crown spread
of 45 feet, standing 60 feet tall, and yielding a (BI) Bigness Index of 202.
Would you be surprised to learn that the Eastern Red Cedar, as
it is commonly called, is not a cedar at all, but in fact something different,
although closely related. It is a large woody plant known as Juniperus
virginiana L., a member of the Cypress family, Cupressaceae. As evergreen trees
of variable shape, they commonly reach a height of 50 to 60 feet, exhibiting
thick, heavy foliage. The leaves are of two kinds, often on the same tree,
commonly dark green, either scale-like or appressed, or awl-shaped and
spreading. Flowering occurs from March to May with catkins on both male and
female trees (dioecious) with the fruit ripening on the female tree from
September through December in the form of a berry-like cone that is sweet and
resinous, 1/4 to 1/3 inch in diameter.
According to Webster's Dictionary of Word Origins, the word
"gin" was derived from "genever" (now spelled with an
initial J) from the Latin Juniperus by way of old French. It was a Dutch word
for a drink made of distilled spirits and flavored with juniper berries when
this was still a new concoction. British soldiers returning from wars in the
lowlands brought home the word along with the beverage. In it's new land,
however, the word was influenced by the similar sounding name of a city in
Switzerland, and thus the earliest name for the drink is geneva, which appeared
in print in 1706. In eighteenth century England, the popular creation of new
slang or cant words by clipping longer words was just as common as it is today,
thus there arose a shortened form, gin, to not only mean the Dutch drink but
also a similar liquor made in Britain.
The genus name, Juniperus, is the classical Latin name and
virginiana is in reference to the state of Virginia, the place where it was
first classified in the United States.. Other vernacular names are Red Savin,
Carolina cedar, Juniper bush, Pencil wood, and Red juniper. The capital of the
state of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, is the French term for "red stick" in
reference to the red wood of Junipers found in the area. The wood is used for
novelties, fence posts, poles, wooden ware, mill work, paneling, closets,
chests, and pencils. The aromatic character of the wood is considered to be a
good insect repellant. The extract of cedar oil has various uses commercially.
The tree is host to a peculiar looking gall-like growth called cedar apple rust,
which in certain stages attacks the leaves of apple trees. At Yuletide, the tree
is often used as the traditional Christmas tree. It is sometimes used in
shelter-belt planting and has been cultivated since 1664. The fruit is eaten by
20 species of birds and the opossum. The roasted berries of some species of
juniper are sometimes used as a coffee substitute, and in parts of northern
Europe an edible pulp is extracted from the berries of the juniper and often
eaten with bread.
Native Americans fashioned hunting bows from the wood of the eastern red
cedar, and used the twigs of the red cedar and yew (Taxus spp.) medicinally by
preparing a decoction by boiling and splashing the material on hot stones or by
taking internally for the relief of rheumatism. The bark of the red cedar was
used by Chippewa women in Ontario for coloring the strips of cedar in their
mats. A decoction was made of the dark red inner bark to produce a dye of
mahogany color and the cedar strips were boiled in it.
By: Reggie Talley
Retired Monroe County Extension Agent
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