Puget Sound Native Tree
Botanical Garden
People have created across the United States lists of the largest individual tree of many species as well as typical size of each in a mature forest. They call the largest tree a CHAMPION TREE, for bragging rights.
Western Red Cedar
Typical dimensions of a large tree of this species in a mature forest:
Height:
Diameter:
Age:
Champion tree for this species:
Height:
Diameter:
Age:
130 feet
10 feet
800 years
230'
22 ft
1460 years
2- Western Red Cedar was the primary forest tree utilized by the First Peoples of Puget Sound, good for buildings, boats, and clothing.
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Western Red Cedar
thuja plicata
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) is a large, native evergreen conifer from western North America, prized for its durable, rot-resistant wood, often used for siding, shingles, and decking, and known for its fragrant, scale-like foliage, reddish-brown fibrous bark, and impressive size, living for centuries. It's a key species in Pacific Northwest forests, valued for its beauty, longevity, and versatility in both natural settings and construction.
Western Red Cedar
This tree species was growing at the Dolphin Place location when the property was purchased in 1973.
Exact data was not collected at the time. The following is data recorded in 2020.
Largest tree for this species within Dolphin Place Open Space:
Height:
Diameter:
90 ft
5 1/2 feet
Western Red Cedar cones are small, and flat and hang down in groups, starting out yellow and becoming brown by season's end.
The bark of a Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) is distinctively fibrous, stringy, and reddish-brown (or grayish-brown on older trees), peeling in long, thin strips that often look like beef jerky or woven strands, with shallow vertical ridges and furrows, especially noticeable on mature trees with their characteristic fluted or buttressed trunks.
Western Red Cedar needles are tiny, scale-like leaves forming flattened, fern-like sprays, bright green on top with distinct white stripes underneath (stomatal bands) that look like little butterflies, and they emit a pleasant, spicy, pineapple-like scent when crushed. These scales are arranged in four rows on the branchlets, giving them a soft texture but rough feel if you run your finger the wrong way.