Does the cedar have fruit? The latest answer is here

The cedar is an evergreen tree of the genus Cedrus in the Pinaceae family, and together with golden larch, hoop pine, giant sequoia, and Japanese umbrella pine it is known as one of the “world's five great garden trees.” China began introducing it in 1920, and it is now widely cultivated in major cities throughout the Yangtze River basin, with Nanjing being China's largest cedar-producing area, accounting for about 60% of the country's total production. Now let's take a look at whether the cedar has fruit!

Does the cedar have fruit?

The cedar does have fruit. Before maturity, the cedar cone is light green with a slight white bloom; when ripe it is reddish-brown, oval or broadly elliptical, 7 to 12 cm long and 5 to 9 cm in diameter, with a rounded blunt tip and a short stalk. The middle seed scales are fan-shaped and inversely triangular, 2.5 to 4 cm long and 4 to 6 cm wide, broadly rounded and inwardly curved at the margin, wedge-shaped in the middle, ear-shaped at the lower part, claw-shaped at the base, with dense short down on the back of the scale, and the bract scales are short and small. The seeds are nearly triangular, and the seed wing is broad and large, longer than the seed, measuring 2.2 to 3.7 cm together with the seed.

Conditions for the cedar to bear cones

For a cedar to bear cones, three conditions are generally required: first, the tree must be over 30 years old; second, male and female must grow together; and third, certain climatic conditions such as temperature and humidity must be present. However, meeting these 3 conditions does not necessarily mean a cedar will produce cones, because the vast majority of cedars are dioecious, and the male flowers open about ten days earlier than the female flowers, so the two flowers "never meet," resulting in an extremely low probability of natural pollination. Flowering and fruiting are extremely rare in areas north of the Yangtze River in China.

The cedar's growing environment

The cedar grows vigorously in mild, cool and moist climates on deep, well-drained acidic soil. It requires a mild, cool and moist climate and deep, well-drained soil, and likes abundant sunlight; it also quietly tolerates shade, and grows on acidic and slightly alkaline soils at elevations of 1300 to 3300 m. It occurs in the northern warm-temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest region, the southern warm-temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest region, the central subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forest region, and the evergreen broad-leaved mixed forest region. It prefers a warm-temperate to central subtropical climate with an annual rainfall of 600 to 1000 ml, and grows best in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China.