Description
Cedar is burned while praying aloud or mentally. The prayers rise with the cedar smoke, carrying it to the Creator. Cedar (Cedrus) is a genus of conifers belonging to the pine family (Pinaceae). Cedar is related to pines (Pinus) and spruce, and like them, has cone-shaped fruit. Cedars are native to the western Himalayas (1500-3200 m) and the Mediterranean region (1000-2200 m). Cedars are known for their fragrant and durable wood.
A cedar can grow up to 40-50 m tall (sometimes 60 m). The plants have bark consisting of thick ridges or square ridges and wide-spreading, straight branches. The shoots are biform. Long shoots form the branches, and short shoots bear the leaves. The plants are evergreen. The leaves are needle-like and 0.8-6 cm long. They grow singly in an open spiral on long branches or in densely packed spirals on short branches. Their color ranges from bright grass green to dark green to glaucous, depending on the thickness of the whitish wax layer that protects the leaves from drying out. The cones are barrel-shaped, 6-12 cm long, and contain winged seeds. The seeds are 1-1.5 cm long and have a wing 2-3 cm long. They have two or three resin sacs containing an unpleasant-tasting resin, probably to prevent them from being eaten by squirrels. Cones take a year to mature. Pollination occurs in September and October. The seeds ripen a year later.
