Cedrus libani Seeds | Cedar of Lebanon
LATIN NAME: Cedrus libani
COMMON NAME: Cedar of Lebanon
Plant Profile
Cedrus libani is the tree on the flag of Lebanon, and the remaining groves are protected for that reason as much as for any ecological one. Old trees are broad and flat-topped, with a massive trunk and horizontal branches that spread wider than the tree is tall. The needles are short, stiff and blue-green, gathered in dense tufts on short shoots, and the cones are barrel-shaped and stand upright on the branches.
The species grows between about 1,300 and 2,000 metres on limestone in the mountains of Lebanon, Syria and southern Turkey, in a belt that has been cut and grazed for four thousand years. The groves that survive are small, and the trees in them are often old and hollow. The timber was famous before it was scarce: Egyptian, Assyrian and Roman builders all logged the mountains.
Science & Biotechnology
The wood contains cedarwood oil, rich in himachalene and in cedrol, and the oil is what gave the timber its reputation for resisting decay and insects. It was used for temple doors, for ship timbers and for coffins, and the smell persists in old wood for centuries. The same oil is distilled today for perfumery and for microscopy, where cedarwood oil is used as an immersion medium.
The tree is also slow. A seedling may take thirty years to produce a cone, and the wood laid down in that time is dense and resinous. That slow growth is why the species could not regenerate under heavy grazing: seedlings are eaten before they can establish, and the groves that remain are largely even-aged stands that date from a period when grazing stopped.
Uses & Benefits
The timber is durable, fragrant and easy to work, and it was historically used for doors, beams, shipbuilding and furniture. The oil is used in perfume, in soap and in microscopy, and the sawdust is sold in sachets as a moth repellent. The tree is planted as a specimen in parks and in large gardens across Europe.
In Lebanese and Turkish practice the resin is used as an antiseptic and the oil as a rub for chest complaints, and the tar is applied to livestock against parasites. The tree is also a symbol, planted at shrines and in churchyards, and young trees are sold for reforestation of the mountain belt.
Growing from Seed
Seed germinates without pretreatment but unevenly. Sow in spring at 18 to 20 degrees, and expect seedlings over four to six weeks, with some stragglers in the second year. The seedling grows slowly at first and then faster, and it should be planted out while small, since the taproot is long and resents disturbance.
The tree wants full sun, sharp drainage and a calcareous soil, and it tolerates drought once established. It is hardy to about minus twenty-five, but it needs a long, hot summer to ripen the wood, and it grows poorly in cool, wet climates. Plant it where it has room for a crown twenty metres across, and do not prune it into shape: the flat-topped habit is the point.
Our Take
A slow, long-lived specimen with a history behind it. Plant it for the next generation, not for the next decade.
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