Hello, I have a conifer (I believe) that I am trying to identify. Here are two photographs which tell almost the whole story. The tree is about 4 m high, and is 12 years old since it was planted (in Melbourne, Australia). None of the local nurseries have been able to identify it, and I am not sure if it is a conifer at all, anymore. Thanks for anyone's help on this. Matthew
Matthew--try cedrus deodora. Should be quite a common conifer in your climate tho, so I'm "nervous" that garden centres didn't ID it right away...hmmm... Glen
Thanks Glen. Unfortunately it's not a deodar *** << looks like I may have been wrong there! *** . The needles on that clump together,and come out radially from side lobes to the branches, whereas these needles come directly off the main stem, and are much more angled towards the horizontal of that main stem. Thanks for trying (that's what the nurseryman thought too) Matthew
Would it be possible to describe / photograph the bark and / or include a branch with the previous year's growth? It's a nice tree, that's for sure.
The tree in your pictures is absolutely a deodar, no doubt about it. Check by looking at other specimens, if any are known to you in the area.
Thank you for those responses gentlemen. Most helpful! Here is a photo of the main trunk, and some of the branches, and one more of some of the higher branches from below. Your help is very much appreciated. Matthew
I'm not 100% convinced that's a Deodora. With Deodoras the branches tend to droop downwards. Here's a few pics of my neighbors's Deodoras:
The orientation of the branch ends is irrelevant, it's the foliage that matters. Look at a large planting of mixed Himalayan cedar seedlings, while there will be a general tendency to have arching branch tips not all of them well be on the team.
Hmm, interesting. The foliage does look similar. Growing up in my parents old house we planted ~10 IIRC, Diodoras all of which looked like my neighbors with the dropping branches. None looked like the pyramidal shape in the photo by the topic starter.
Or visit a collection, nursery, web site or picture book where a range of cedar cultivars are shown. While some are branch sports, many (most?) other fastigiate, weeping, creeping, globular, prostrate, blue, yellow, or silver forms originated as seedlings. Plants vary, seedlings are not clonal cultivars - and even clonal cultivars vary with site conditions and propagation method.
