Nomenclature authorities on the Web seem to favour Cedrus atlantica. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Cedar http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?9690 http://www.conifers.org/pi/ce/atlantica.htm Also RHS and Index Kewensis.
Heavily biased by horticultural usage; botanical listings, and authors with experience of variability of both taxa in the wild, favour inclusion in C. libani at varietal or subspecific rank (e.g. Greuter, Burdet & Long, Med.-Checklist)
Sounds like a good pubs and suds conversation! The kind that go through a clothes washer, that is... rhetorically speaking. But I agree, the closer to representing a closer evaluation is always more informative. Regards Resin, 'bows out kindly'. Dax
I think this is an Atlas Cedar (tall tree on the left) at an apartment building in the West End of Vancouver. Maybe even a Blue Atlas Cedar, though it looks more blue here than it seemed when I was there looking at it. If I'm wrong about the ID, please move it to where it belongs. So these cones with their little headdresses, is it that they're just starting to break apart? Last photo is the pollen cones.
Yep; they were ripe last October / November, and are slowly starting to break up. The full-size green cones are nearly ripe, will be so in a month or two. The small green cones (last pic) are pollen cones about to shed pollen; the corresponding cohort of seed cones (none visible; even smaller than the pollen cones) will be ripe in October next year.
