Lebanese Cedar

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Lebanese cedar (lat. Cedrus libani) - an old-timer of the planet, which is one of the four species of conifers of the genus Cedar (lat. Cedrus) of the family Pine (lat. Pinaceae). According to botanists, this species is divided into two subspecies, which differ from each other, for example, the color of needle-like leaves, using colors such as gray, blue, blue and green in different shades. The majestic appearance of the tree with evergreen needles delights and evokes a sense of pride in the nature of our planet. It's just a pity that the seeds of cedar cones are not edible, like those of his family member, Siberian Pine, to which the adjective "cedar" is mistakenly added.

What's in your name

The Latin name of the genus "Cedrus" ("Cedar") smoothly passed into Latin from the ancient Greek language, in which plants of this type were called exactly so.

The specific epithet "libani" indicates a mountain range called "Lebanon", stretching from south to north across the country of the same name. In the days of the Phoenicians, the high slopes of the ridge were completely covered with Lebanese cedars, from the wood of which the Phoenicians built ships. The ancient people were more thrifty than the current generation, making sure that the cedar groves were not completely cut down and replenished with seedlings. Beginning in the 17th century, people began to treat nature more barbarously, leaving to descendants rare groves of the famous Lebanese cedar.

The word "libani" itself smoothly migrated from the ancient Aramaic language to other languages, including Arabic, and means "milky white", recalling the snowy peaks of the mountain range, on which a French botanist named Achille Richard (Achille Richard, 1794 - 1852) the first description of the plant was made.

Description

The Lebanese cedar is an evergreen coniferous tree, a massive single trunk of which can grow up to forty meters in height. Moreover, for the first fifty years of its life, the tree quickly gains height, and after seventy years its growth slows down, and the trunk forms several large vertical branches, giving the impression of a multi-stemmed tree. The trunk diameter of mature trees reaches two and a half meters. The dark gray or black-brown bark of the Lebanese Cedar is covered with deep horizontal cracks and has a scaly, rough surface.

At a young age, the crown of the Lebanese cedar is formed in the form of a pyramid. In a dense forest, where neighbors limit the spatial possibilities of the Cedar, its crown remains pyramidal. Where there is more space, the crown gradually becomes flatter with fairly even fluffy branches. The crown is formed by branches of two types. The branches of the first order grow horizontally, reaching massive sizes. Dense branches of the second order grow in the horizontal plane. Dimorphic shoots are divided into long and short. Pale brown young shoots turn gray over the years, turning into scaly and corrugated.

Vegetative buds of Lebanese cedar are ovoid and slightly resinous. Their pale brown surface is formed by deciduous scales. Short shoots show the world needle-like leaves ranging in length from five to thirty-five millimeters, arranged in spirals. The section of such a leaf is rhombic, and all four sides of the rhombus are equipped with stomatal stripes that serve as respiratory organs for the tree.

Lebanese cedar is in no hurry to bear fruit. Cones on its branches do not appear until the age of forty. Lebanese cedar is a monoecious plant. Both male and female cones appear at the ends of short shoots, moreover, male cones appear almost a month earlier than female ones. Pale green solitary male cones, four to five centimeters long, gradually acquire a pale brown color. Female buds are also born pale green, sessile and resinous. After pollination, they take twice as long to mature fully than a woman needs to carry a child. During this time, they grow in length from eight to twelve centimeters with a width of three to six centimeters and acquire a gray-brown color. The surface of the buds is scaly and resinous, and the shape is like an egg or miniature barrel.

As the female cone matures, its scales open, starting from the top, freeing seeds, ready for independent life in order to prolong the life of the Lebanese cedar on the planet.